While Apple is first and foremost a hardware company, it has more or less always been about the "Apple experience". They've never "just" been a hardware company.
For as long as Apple has existed, they've done things "their way" both with hardware and software, though they tend to want to abstract the software away.
If it was merely a question of selling hardware, why does iCloud exist ? or AppleTV+, or Handoff ? or iMessage, or the countless other seemingly small life improvements that somehow the remainder of the industry cannot seem to figure out how to do well.
Just a "simple" thing as switching headphones seamlessly between devices is something i no longer think about, it just happens, and it takes a trip with a Windows computer and a regular bluetooth headset to remind me how things used to be.
As part of their "privacy first" strategy, iMessage also fits in nicely. Apple doesn't have to operate a huge instant messaging network, which undoubtedly is not making a profit, but they do, because having one entry to secure, encrypted communication fits well with the Apple Experience. iMessage did so well at abstracting the ugly details of encryption that few people even think about that that's what the blue bubble is actually about, it more or less only means your message is end to end encrypted. As a side effect you can also send full resolution images (and more), but that's in no way unique to iMessage.
While Apple is first and foremost a hardware company, it has more or less always been about the "Apple experience". They've never "just" been a hardware company.
For as long as Apple has existed, they've done things "their way" both with hardware and software, though they tend to want to abstract the software away.
If it was merely a question of selling hardware, why does iCloud exist ? or AppleTV+, or Handoff ? or iMessage, or the countless other seemingly small life improvements that somehow the remainder of the industry cannot seem to figure out how to do well.
Just a "simple" thing as switching headphones seamlessly between devices is something i no longer think about, it just happens, and it takes a trip with a Windows computer and a regular bluetooth headset to remind me how things used to be.
As part of their "privacy first" strategy, iMessage also fits in nicely. Apple doesn't have to operate a huge instant messaging network, which undoubtedly is not making a profit, but they do, because having one entry to secure, encrypted communication fits well with the Apple Experience. iMessage did so well at abstracting the ugly details of encryption that few people even think about that that's what the blue bubble is actually about, it more or less only means your message is end to end encrypted. As a side effect you can also send full resolution images (and more), but that's in no way unique to iMessage.