That's too much margin. They're trading net profits for user happiness and it's hurting their brand more than they understand. The app store cartel must fall.
aucisson_masque
The competition is limited to android and Google is sabotaging every advantage they held against Apple. Customization is lost, freedom is lost, even the smartphones prices are now similar to iPhones. Pixels sell for premium price nowadays.
irl_zebra
imo the app store thing is very niche and only affects a small, vocal group that tends to sit on hacker news and pay attention to these things. Can almost guarantee that 95% of the iphone-having population does not know/care about the app store "issue." I do think the general decline in quality and uptick in bugs will bite them slowly, at least once there's an iphone competitor of note.
amelius
That's what you get with shareholders ...
PunchyHamster
It's a bit of Valve situation, the competition just refuses to make better product
crazygringo
What evidence is there that it's hurting their brand?
Outside of HN I see zero complaints. And the situation has been going on for a while. I might not like it, but it seems perfectly fine for their brand as far as I can tell.
raincole
> hurting their brand more than they understand
Among perhaps the 1% super tech savvy users. I never heard anyone who wants to sideload apps outside online (not even from other programmers I know in real life. Ones who care like much always have been using rooted android from day 1.)
PlatoIsADisease
Brand name? Apple is a faux-Veblean good targeting lower middle class people, moms, and teens (Who pretend the $50/mo payments are expensive).
Its a demonstration of wealth.
arealaccount
IMHO as a user I prefer purchasing via app store because it avoids all of the dark patterns companies use to prevent subscriptions or returns.
I get that it sucks that the honest folks have to pay a 30% fees
I'd be happy to pay a 30% premium on my app store purchases just for the ability to unsubscribe without dark patterns.
caminante
You're editorializing the headline, aside from your vague phrasing for "margin" (actually gross margin) and "Services [segment]" which has had gross margins >66% since FY20.
Better to reflect the actual headline and then add a comment.
edit:
This is the SaaS division. Similar at GOOG, MSFT, CRM, etc. have similar gross margins.
BoredPositron
I don't understand what you want to say with your comment.
benoau
Not a huge surprise, there's an iCloud antitrust alleging a 78% gross profit margin:
Yea. I saw that too. One day all the hardware will be loss leaders for services revenues.
kergonath
That would be a shame, because that’d put Apple’s interests completely at odds with mine. Using Linux would not be too much of a hurdle, but there aren’t really any better phones or tablets. I am not going to jump from the Apple pan into the Google fire.
1123581321
Their hardware margin supposedly averages 40%. A 40+% price drop across the board would be a good outcome for a lot of their customers.
behnamoh
I wonder how AI can disrupt this nasty business by teaching users how they can self-host much of those services and save $$$. Let's face it: for the normies out there, the idea of having "your own iCloud" is still daunting (albeit very much possible).
Can AI level the playing field between users and greedy firms like Apple?
brianwawok
Nah. They won’t even know it’s a problem to solve.
latexr
Most users won’t ever use any AI outside of the big players, and those couldn’t give a flying fuck about user empowerment. They’ll just advertise at you and recommend whatever is popular. It’s unrealistic to believe AI will bring any kind of democratisation or software service independence to regular users.
doug_durham
Most people don't have the time to "self host". I could easily self host, but I don't because it's not worth my time.
troupo
Upton Sinclair coined the oft-cited maxim “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I propose a corollary: It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies[1] are in severe decline[2] when the company is making more money than ever.
I joked several years ago, that when a software company loses its way, it does UI refresh that makes everything bigger and removes features.
mrtksn
This screams huge potential for dividing the internet into localities due to new geopolitical situation.
Europe accounts for over %26 of the revenue, for $30B thats close to ~$8B for the last 3 months.
The thing about hegemons is that they are able to enforce things like breaking the network effect or demolishing the walls of walled gardens. If things get bad enough, EU can give Apple a choice: leave EU market and loose all your EU revenue which is %26 of all revenue or as big as %65 of the US revenue OR unlock your devices %100 to be usable with 3rd party services. Put in numbers, definitely loose $38B per quarter or possibly loose $8B per quarter.
I bet with %76.5 margin which translates to potential $2B profit per month and employment for thousands of high paying jobs, this will create enough greed to push for 3rd party local services investment. Anti-Americanism, national security concerns, pricing and better services(Apple's some services can be better) or even maybe bad due to war/political meddling can push Apple's services revenue to 3rd parties. Also, there's quite a bit unemployed American talent out there so with EU's push they can move to EU and eat Apple's service revenue.
That's a bit on the fantasy realm but considering that so many unthinkable things are happening these days, maybe US will threaten France and bring a carrier strike group to Normandy shores and US services revenues from EU will go to zero? There's definitely will among the people for that, just the politicians need some push.
runako
I think comments focusing on the App Store are way off base.
Unless my household is a wild outlier, I would expect the vast majority of services revenue to be Apple One and similar. You need more cloud storage to backup your photos, you get Music and TV with it. Even many folks who don't do Apple One will end up paying for some amount of iCloud storage.
Yes, renting cloud storage at scale to consumers can be very profitable. BackBlaze is not as scaled, and doesn't have the platform tie, and achieves a 60% gross margin.
raincole
Why do people even calculate or care the gross margin percentage outside of manufacturing and retailing?
I genuinely fail to see why and how it's a number with any meaning. For example, a plumber fixed your house's pipe. He charged mostly for his time instead of the tools and materials he used (righteously). If you count his 'gross margin percentage' it might be higher than Apple. Does it mean anything?
airstrike
It doesn't mean anything because you're comparing the plumber with Apple, but if you compare plumbers to each other, or possibly even a plumber to an electrician, it could be useful.
Galanwe
The plumber hourly wage is to be deducted from his margin. Just as Apple's costs for running the payment system and platform are deducted.
> I genuinely don't know why and how it's a number with any meaning.
It has meaning in the context of Apple arguing that their fees are that high because they have to maintain said infrastructure.
Which leads to the question "how come there is no competition to lower such high margins?", which in turns questions whether any competition in unfairly blocked by Apple.
In a totally frictionless market, profit margins are usually low. Very high margins are often a sign of a closed market where _somehow_ competition cannot emerge.
zmmmmm
Somehow Apple maintains this perception that they make money on the hardware and therefore are trustworthy because they don't have any interests hostile to their users.
But when you look at what's really happening it's clear - they have a highly hostile interest to their users - they want to lock them into the ecosystem and then rent seek like crazy on services that their users have almost no choice but to buy.
This is why I love Apple products but I only buy the open ones that leave me choice to do what I want - which pretty much means I'm only buying Macbooks these days.
PlatoIsADisease
Walled Garden is marketing speak. Walled Prison is the reality.
Its always been like this, but I don't think their target demographic cares. I remember 10 years ago I heard something like: "Iphone, the phone your mom uses." Not that its accurate. Blows my mind VIPs use iphones after Pegasus.. How could these people be so unaware?
didip
As a shareholder, this is super fantastic.
marstall
yet tim cook still feels the need to attend the melania premiere
zer00eyz
For some context:
Nvidia: GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 74.8% and 75.0%,
Micron: MU (Micron Technology) Gross Margin % as of today (January 28, 2026) is 56.04%
marcusestes
That's too much margin. They're trading net profits for user happiness and it's hurting their brand more than they understand. The app store cartel must fall.
aucisson_masque
The competition is limited to android and Google is sabotaging every advantage they held against Apple. Customization is lost, freedom is lost, even the smartphones prices are now similar to iPhones. Pixels sell for premium price nowadays.
irl_zebra
imo the app store thing is very niche and only affects a small, vocal group that tends to sit on hacker news and pay attention to these things. Can almost guarantee that 95% of the iphone-having population does not know/care about the app store "issue." I do think the general decline in quality and uptick in bugs will bite them slowly, at least once there's an iphone competitor of note.
amelius
That's what you get with shareholders ...
PunchyHamster
It's a bit of Valve situation, the competition just refuses to make better product
crazygringo
What evidence is there that it's hurting their brand?
Outside of HN I see zero complaints. And the situation has been going on for a while. I might not like it, but it seems perfectly fine for their brand as far as I can tell.
raincole
> hurting their brand more than they understand
Among perhaps the 1% super tech savvy users. I never heard anyone who wants to sideload apps outside online (not even from other programmers I know in real life. Ones who care like much always have been using rooted android from day 1.)
PlatoIsADisease
Brand name? Apple is a faux-Veblean good targeting lower middle class people, moms, and teens (Who pretend the $50/mo payments are expensive).
Its a demonstration of wealth.
arealaccount
IMHO as a user I prefer purchasing via app store because it avoids all of the dark patterns companies use to prevent subscriptions or returns.
I get that it sucks that the honest folks have to pay a 30% fees
I'd be happy to pay a 30% premium on my app store purchases just for the ability to unsubscribe without dark patterns.
caminante
You're editorializing the headline, aside from your vague phrasing for "margin" (actually gross margin) and "Services [segment]" which has had gross margins >66% since FY20.
Better to reflect the actual headline and then add a comment.
edit:
This is the SaaS division. Similar at GOOG, MSFT, CRM, etc. have similar gross margins.
BoredPositron
I don't understand what you want to say with your comment.
benoau
Not a huge surprise, there's an iCloud antitrust alleging a 78% gross profit margin:
Yea. I saw that too. One day all the hardware will be loss leaders for services revenues.
kergonath
That would be a shame, because that’d put Apple’s interests completely at odds with mine. Using Linux would not be too much of a hurdle, but there aren’t really any better phones or tablets. I am not going to jump from the Apple pan into the Google fire.
1123581321
Their hardware margin supposedly averages 40%. A 40+% price drop across the board would be a good outcome for a lot of their customers.
behnamoh
I wonder how AI can disrupt this nasty business by teaching users how they can self-host much of those services and save $$$. Let's face it: for the normies out there, the idea of having "your own iCloud" is still daunting (albeit very much possible).
Can AI level the playing field between users and greedy firms like Apple?
brianwawok
Nah. They won’t even know it’s a problem to solve.
latexr
Most users won’t ever use any AI outside of the big players, and those couldn’t give a flying fuck about user empowerment. They’ll just advertise at you and recommend whatever is popular. It’s unrealistic to believe AI will bring any kind of democratisation or software service independence to regular users.
doug_durham
Most people don't have the time to "self host". I could easily self host, but I don't because it's not worth my time.
troupo
Upton Sinclair coined the oft-cited maxim “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I propose a corollary: It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies[1] are in severe decline[2] when the company is making more money than ever.
I joked several years ago, that when a software company loses its way, it does UI refresh that makes everything bigger and removes features.
mrtksn
This screams huge potential for dividing the internet into localities due to new geopolitical situation.
Europe accounts for over %26 of the revenue, for $30B thats close to ~$8B for the last 3 months.
The thing about hegemons is that they are able to enforce things like breaking the network effect or demolishing the walls of walled gardens. If things get bad enough, EU can give Apple a choice: leave EU market and loose all your EU revenue which is %26 of all revenue or as big as %65 of the US revenue OR unlock your devices %100 to be usable with 3rd party services. Put in numbers, definitely loose $38B per quarter or possibly loose $8B per quarter.
I bet with %76.5 margin which translates to potential $2B profit per month and employment for thousands of high paying jobs, this will create enough greed to push for 3rd party local services investment. Anti-Americanism, national security concerns, pricing and better services(Apple's some services can be better) or even maybe bad due to war/political meddling can push Apple's services revenue to 3rd parties. Also, there's quite a bit unemployed American talent out there so with EU's push they can move to EU and eat Apple's service revenue.
That's a bit on the fantasy realm but considering that so many unthinkable things are happening these days, maybe US will threaten France and bring a carrier strike group to Normandy shores and US services revenues from EU will go to zero? There's definitely will among the people for that, just the politicians need some push.
runako
I think comments focusing on the App Store are way off base.
Unless my household is a wild outlier, I would expect the vast majority of services revenue to be Apple One and similar. You need more cloud storage to backup your photos, you get Music and TV with it. Even many folks who don't do Apple One will end up paying for some amount of iCloud storage.
Yes, renting cloud storage at scale to consumers can be very profitable. BackBlaze is not as scaled, and doesn't have the platform tie, and achieves a 60% gross margin.
raincole
Why do people even calculate or care the gross margin percentage outside of manufacturing and retailing?
I genuinely fail to see why and how it's a number with any meaning. For example, a plumber fixed your house's pipe. He charged mostly for his time instead of the tools and materials he used (righteously). If you count his 'gross margin percentage' it might be higher than Apple. Does it mean anything?
airstrike
It doesn't mean anything because you're comparing the plumber with Apple, but if you compare plumbers to each other, or possibly even a plumber to an electrician, it could be useful.
Galanwe
The plumber hourly wage is to be deducted from his margin. Just as Apple's costs for running the payment system and platform are deducted.
> I genuinely don't know why and how it's a number with any meaning.
It has meaning in the context of Apple arguing that their fees are that high because they have to maintain said infrastructure.
Which leads to the question "how come there is no competition to lower such high margins?", which in turns questions whether any competition in unfairly blocked by Apple.
In a totally frictionless market, profit margins are usually low. Very high margins are often a sign of a closed market where _somehow_ competition cannot emerge.
zmmmmm
Somehow Apple maintains this perception that they make money on the hardware and therefore are trustworthy because they don't have any interests hostile to their users.
But when you look at what's really happening it's clear - they have a highly hostile interest to their users - they want to lock them into the ecosystem and then rent seek like crazy on services that their users have almost no choice but to buy.
This is why I love Apple products but I only buy the open ones that leave me choice to do what I want - which pretty much means I'm only buying Macbooks these days.
PlatoIsADisease
Walled Garden is marketing speak. Walled Prison is the reality.
Its always been like this, but I don't think their target demographic cares. I remember 10 years ago I heard something like: "Iphone, the phone your mom uses." Not that its accurate. Blows my mind VIPs use iphones after Pegasus.. How could these people be so unaware?
didip
As a shareholder, this is super fantastic.
marstall
yet tim cook still feels the need to attend the melania premiere
zer00eyz
For some context:
Nvidia: GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 74.8% and 75.0%,
Micron: MU (Micron Technology) Gross Margin % as of today (January 28, 2026) is 56.04%
That's too much margin. They're trading net profits for user happiness and it's hurting their brand more than they understand. The app store cartel must fall.
The competition is limited to android and Google is sabotaging every advantage they held against Apple. Customization is lost, freedom is lost, even the smartphones prices are now similar to iPhones. Pixels sell for premium price nowadays.
imo the app store thing is very niche and only affects a small, vocal group that tends to sit on hacker news and pay attention to these things. Can almost guarantee that 95% of the iphone-having population does not know/care about the app store "issue." I do think the general decline in quality and uptick in bugs will bite them slowly, at least once there's an iphone competitor of note.
That's what you get with shareholders ...
It's a bit of Valve situation, the competition just refuses to make better product
What evidence is there that it's hurting their brand?
Outside of HN I see zero complaints. And the situation has been going on for a while. I might not like it, but it seems perfectly fine for their brand as far as I can tell.
> hurting their brand more than they understand
Among perhaps the 1% super tech savvy users. I never heard anyone who wants to sideload apps outside online (not even from other programmers I know in real life. Ones who care like much always have been using rooted android from day 1.)
Brand name? Apple is a faux-Veblean good targeting lower middle class people, moms, and teens (Who pretend the $50/mo payments are expensive).
Its a demonstration of wealth.
IMHO as a user I prefer purchasing via app store because it avoids all of the dark patterns companies use to prevent subscriptions or returns.
I get that it sucks that the honest folks have to pay a 30% fees
I'd be happy to pay a 30% premium on my app store purchases just for the ability to unsubscribe without dark patterns.
You're editorializing the headline, aside from your vague phrasing for "margin" (actually gross margin) and "Services [segment]" which has had gross margins >66% since FY20.
Better to reflect the actual headline and then add a comment.
edit:
This is the SaaS division. Similar at GOOG, MSFT, CRM, etc. have similar gross margins.
I don't understand what you want to say with your comment.
Not a huge surprise, there's an iCloud antitrust alleging a 78% gross profit margin:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.42...
The Epic legal case ruling cites a 75% profit margin on App Store fees:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.36...
And of course, their 36% share of Google Ad revenue revealed in Google's antitrust has to be approximately 100% profit:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/14/google-pays-apple-36percent-...
Epic should take a look in the mirror first
Yea. I saw that too. One day all the hardware will be loss leaders for services revenues.
That would be a shame, because that’d put Apple’s interests completely at odds with mine. Using Linux would not be too much of a hurdle, but there aren’t really any better phones or tablets. I am not going to jump from the Apple pan into the Google fire.
Their hardware margin supposedly averages 40%. A 40+% price drop across the board would be a good outcome for a lot of their customers.
I wonder how AI can disrupt this nasty business by teaching users how they can self-host much of those services and save $$$. Let's face it: for the normies out there, the idea of having "your own iCloud" is still daunting (albeit very much possible).
Can AI level the playing field between users and greedy firms like Apple?
Nah. They won’t even know it’s a problem to solve.
Most users won’t ever use any AI outside of the big players, and those couldn’t give a flying fuck about user empowerment. They’ll just advertise at you and recommend whatever is popular. It’s unrealistic to believe AI will bring any kind of democratisation or software service independence to regular users.
Most people don't have the time to "self host". I could easily self host, but I don't because it's not worth my time.
Upton Sinclair coined the oft-cited maxim “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I propose a corollary: It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies[1] are in severe decline[2] when the company is making more money than ever.
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/30/apple-reports-r...
[1] https://daringfireball.net/2026/01/resizing_windows_macos_26
[2] https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_th...
I joked several years ago, that when a software company loses its way, it does UI refresh that makes everything bigger and removes features.
This screams huge potential for dividing the internet into localities due to new geopolitical situation.
Europe accounts for over %26 of the revenue, for $30B thats close to ~$8B for the last 3 months.
The thing about hegemons is that they are able to enforce things like breaking the network effect or demolishing the walls of walled gardens. If things get bad enough, EU can give Apple a choice: leave EU market and loose all your EU revenue which is %26 of all revenue or as big as %65 of the US revenue OR unlock your devices %100 to be usable with 3rd party services. Put in numbers, definitely loose $38B per quarter or possibly loose $8B per quarter.
I bet with %76.5 margin which translates to potential $2B profit per month and employment for thousands of high paying jobs, this will create enough greed to push for 3rd party local services investment. Anti-Americanism, national security concerns, pricing and better services(Apple's some services can be better) or even maybe bad due to war/political meddling can push Apple's services revenue to 3rd parties. Also, there's quite a bit unemployed American talent out there so with EU's push they can move to EU and eat Apple's service revenue.
That's a bit on the fantasy realm but considering that so many unthinkable things are happening these days, maybe US will threaten France and bring a carrier strike group to Normandy shores and US services revenues from EU will go to zero? There's definitely will among the people for that, just the politicians need some push.
I think comments focusing on the App Store are way off base.
Unless my household is a wild outlier, I would expect the vast majority of services revenue to be Apple One and similar. You need more cloud storage to backup your photos, you get Music and TV with it. Even many folks who don't do Apple One will end up paying for some amount of iCloud storage.
Yes, renting cloud storage at scale to consumers can be very profitable. BackBlaze is not as scaled, and doesn't have the platform tie, and achieves a 60% gross margin.
Why do people even calculate or care the gross margin percentage outside of manufacturing and retailing?
I genuinely fail to see why and how it's a number with any meaning. For example, a plumber fixed your house's pipe. He charged mostly for his time instead of the tools and materials he used (righteously). If you count his 'gross margin percentage' it might be higher than Apple. Does it mean anything?
It doesn't mean anything because you're comparing the plumber with Apple, but if you compare plumbers to each other, or possibly even a plumber to an electrician, it could be useful.
The plumber hourly wage is to be deducted from his margin. Just as Apple's costs for running the payment system and platform are deducted.
> I genuinely don't know why and how it's a number with any meaning.
It has meaning in the context of Apple arguing that their fees are that high because they have to maintain said infrastructure.
Which leads to the question "how come there is no competition to lower such high margins?", which in turns questions whether any competition in unfairly blocked by Apple.
In a totally frictionless market, profit margins are usually low. Very high margins are often a sign of a closed market where _somehow_ competition cannot emerge.
Somehow Apple maintains this perception that they make money on the hardware and therefore are trustworthy because they don't have any interests hostile to their users.
But when you look at what's really happening it's clear - they have a highly hostile interest to their users - they want to lock them into the ecosystem and then rent seek like crazy on services that their users have almost no choice but to buy.
This is why I love Apple products but I only buy the open ones that leave me choice to do what I want - which pretty much means I'm only buying Macbooks these days.
Walled Garden is marketing speak. Walled Prison is the reality.
Its always been like this, but I don't think their target demographic cares. I remember 10 years ago I heard something like: "Iphone, the phone your mom uses." Not that its accurate. Blows my mind VIPs use iphones after Pegasus.. How could these people be so unaware?
As a shareholder, this is super fantastic.
yet tim cook still feels the need to attend the melania premiere
For some context:
Nvidia: GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 74.8% and 75.0%,
Micron: MU (Micron Technology) Gross Margin % as of today (January 28, 2026) is 56.04%
That's too much margin. They're trading net profits for user happiness and it's hurting their brand more than they understand. The app store cartel must fall.
The competition is limited to android and Google is sabotaging every advantage they held against Apple. Customization is lost, freedom is lost, even the smartphones prices are now similar to iPhones. Pixels sell for premium price nowadays.
imo the app store thing is very niche and only affects a small, vocal group that tends to sit on hacker news and pay attention to these things. Can almost guarantee that 95% of the iphone-having population does not know/care about the app store "issue." I do think the general decline in quality and uptick in bugs will bite them slowly, at least once there's an iphone competitor of note.
That's what you get with shareholders ...
It's a bit of Valve situation, the competition just refuses to make better product
What evidence is there that it's hurting their brand?
Outside of HN I see zero complaints. And the situation has been going on for a while. I might not like it, but it seems perfectly fine for their brand as far as I can tell.
> hurting their brand more than they understand
Among perhaps the 1% super tech savvy users. I never heard anyone who wants to sideload apps outside online (not even from other programmers I know in real life. Ones who care like much always have been using rooted android from day 1.)
Brand name? Apple is a faux-Veblean good targeting lower middle class people, moms, and teens (Who pretend the $50/mo payments are expensive).
Its a demonstration of wealth.
IMHO as a user I prefer purchasing via app store because it avoids all of the dark patterns companies use to prevent subscriptions or returns.
I get that it sucks that the honest folks have to pay a 30% fees
I'd be happy to pay a 30% premium on my app store purchases just for the ability to unsubscribe without dark patterns.
You're editorializing the headline, aside from your vague phrasing for "margin" (actually gross margin) and "Services [segment]" which has had gross margins >66% since FY20.
Better to reflect the actual headline and then add a comment.
edit:
This is the SaaS division. Similar at GOOG, MSFT, CRM, etc. have similar gross margins.
I don't understand what you want to say with your comment.
Not a huge surprise, there's an iCloud antitrust alleging a 78% gross profit margin:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.42...
The Epic legal case ruling cites a 75% profit margin on App Store fees:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.36...
And of course, their 36% share of Google Ad revenue revealed in Google's antitrust has to be approximately 100% profit:
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/14/google-pays-apple-36percent-...
Epic should take a look in the mirror first
Yea. I saw that too. One day all the hardware will be loss leaders for services revenues.
That would be a shame, because that’d put Apple’s interests completely at odds with mine. Using Linux would not be too much of a hurdle, but there aren’t really any better phones or tablets. I am not going to jump from the Apple pan into the Google fire.
Their hardware margin supposedly averages 40%. A 40+% price drop across the board would be a good outcome for a lot of their customers.
I wonder how AI can disrupt this nasty business by teaching users how they can self-host much of those services and save $$$. Let's face it: for the normies out there, the idea of having "your own iCloud" is still daunting (albeit very much possible).
Can AI level the playing field between users and greedy firms like Apple?
Nah. They won’t even know it’s a problem to solve.
Most users won’t ever use any AI outside of the big players, and those couldn’t give a flying fuck about user empowerment. They’ll just advertise at you and recommend whatever is popular. It’s unrealistic to believe AI will bring any kind of democratisation or software service independence to regular users.
Most people don't have the time to "self host". I could easily self host, but I don't because it's not worth my time.
Upton Sinclair coined the oft-cited maxim “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” I propose a corollary: It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies[1] are in severe decline[2] when the company is making more money than ever.
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/30/apple-reports-r...
[1] https://daringfireball.net/2026/01/resizing_windows_macos_26
[2] https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_th...
I joked several years ago, that when a software company loses its way, it does UI refresh that makes everything bigger and removes features.
This screams huge potential for dividing the internet into localities due to new geopolitical situation.
Europe accounts for over %26 of the revenue, for $30B thats close to ~$8B for the last 3 months.
The thing about hegemons is that they are able to enforce things like breaking the network effect or demolishing the walls of walled gardens. If things get bad enough, EU can give Apple a choice: leave EU market and loose all your EU revenue which is %26 of all revenue or as big as %65 of the US revenue OR unlock your devices %100 to be usable with 3rd party services. Put in numbers, definitely loose $38B per quarter or possibly loose $8B per quarter.
I bet with %76.5 margin which translates to potential $2B profit per month and employment for thousands of high paying jobs, this will create enough greed to push for 3rd party local services investment. Anti-Americanism, national security concerns, pricing and better services(Apple's some services can be better) or even maybe bad due to war/political meddling can push Apple's services revenue to 3rd parties. Also, there's quite a bit unemployed American talent out there so with EU's push they can move to EU and eat Apple's service revenue.
That's a bit on the fantasy realm but considering that so many unthinkable things are happening these days, maybe US will threaten France and bring a carrier strike group to Normandy shores and US services revenues from EU will go to zero? There's definitely will among the people for that, just the politicians need some push.
I think comments focusing on the App Store are way off base.
Unless my household is a wild outlier, I would expect the vast majority of services revenue to be Apple One and similar. You need more cloud storage to backup your photos, you get Music and TV with it. Even many folks who don't do Apple One will end up paying for some amount of iCloud storage.
Yes, renting cloud storage at scale to consumers can be very profitable. BackBlaze is not as scaled, and doesn't have the platform tie, and achieves a 60% gross margin.
Why do people even calculate or care the gross margin percentage outside of manufacturing and retailing?
I genuinely fail to see why and how it's a number with any meaning. For example, a plumber fixed your house's pipe. He charged mostly for his time instead of the tools and materials he used (righteously). If you count his 'gross margin percentage' it might be higher than Apple. Does it mean anything?
It doesn't mean anything because you're comparing the plumber with Apple, but if you compare plumbers to each other, or possibly even a plumber to an electrician, it could be useful.
The plumber hourly wage is to be deducted from his margin. Just as Apple's costs for running the payment system and platform are deducted.
> I genuinely don't know why and how it's a number with any meaning.
It has meaning in the context of Apple arguing that their fees are that high because they have to maintain said infrastructure.
Which leads to the question "how come there is no competition to lower such high margins?", which in turns questions whether any competition in unfairly blocked by Apple.
In a totally frictionless market, profit margins are usually low. Very high margins are often a sign of a closed market where _somehow_ competition cannot emerge.
Somehow Apple maintains this perception that they make money on the hardware and therefore are trustworthy because they don't have any interests hostile to their users.
But when you look at what's really happening it's clear - they have a highly hostile interest to their users - they want to lock them into the ecosystem and then rent seek like crazy on services that their users have almost no choice but to buy.
This is why I love Apple products but I only buy the open ones that leave me choice to do what I want - which pretty much means I'm only buying Macbooks these days.
Walled Garden is marketing speak. Walled Prison is the reality.
Its always been like this, but I don't think their target demographic cares. I remember 10 years ago I heard something like: "Iphone, the phone your mom uses." Not that its accurate. Blows my mind VIPs use iphones after Pegasus.. How could these people be so unaware?
As a shareholder, this is super fantastic.
yet tim cook still feels the need to attend the melania premiere
For some context:
Nvidia: GAAP and non-GAAP gross margins are expected to be 74.8% and 75.0%,
Micron: MU (Micron Technology) Gross Margin % as of today (January 28, 2026) is 56.04%