If you want to access Apple (generically), users will still go to apple.com because even if they know that there's a .apple domain, what's the root host?
My best guess is a conventional default emerges shortly.
And this isn't necessarily about people wanting to find apple's main website. Apple would have control over all subdomains and hosts in the namespace. They could give a subdomain to every app in the app store. So if you want the Pandora app, you don't navigate to Pandora.com were you might see ads for other mobile devices. https://www.pandora.com/everywhere/mobile You would go to Pandora.apple and only see the iOS mobile app.
www is the default, he's not talking about software.