>Apple rarely (never?) releases products as loss leaders

Ever heard of the iTunes music store? Minimally profitable and repeatedly referred to as a driver for iPod/iWhatever sales rather than a profit center. Without the iPhone's popularity, the same concept would apply to the App Store as well. When announced, it was directly compared to the music operation, and not expected to make any measurable impact on the bottom line.

This analysis (though obviously flawed by Apple's own sales data release policies) largely backs up these statements: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/255967-timeline-strategy-c...