I remember having that "Is Apple a hardware company or a software company?" debate endlessly with other folks at Apple and outside of Apple back in the early-mid 90's. Back then, all the big names were either one or the other and we thought that meant that Apple should pick one because they were failing at trying to do both.

Steve settled that debate fairly early on and showed that both sides were wrong. Apple sells "the whole thing". They sell a curated experience that involves their close management of the hardware, the software, key peripherals, the iTunes store, etc. They do all that so they can deliver more than they could by pursuing some single niche part of the experience.