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Comment by mmcnl | Hacker News Reader

This is just plain wrong. Apple generates most revenue and profits with hardware and it's not even close.

Apple's profit margins on many services are at 76% (according to Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/01/13/apples-de...), over twice that of their hardware sales. Margins are higher on reselling licensed content (their Spotify and Netflix alternatives), but their customer base for those is still rapidly growing according to their 2025 report.

Tim Cook said it himself: Apple is not a hardware company (https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-apple-is-not-a-hard...).

Hardware revenue is 3x the services revenue, even with half the margins it still generates more profit than services. I get that Apple would like to increase service revenue but they are a hardware company at heart and their financial statements show it too

If you read the last link you'll see he just means Apple could slash its hardware margins (if needed) and still make tons of money.

As we saw recently, they decided they are, after all, a hardware company, since they decided not to slash their margins...

> Apple's profit margins on many services are at 76% (according to Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/01/13/apples-de...), over twice that of their hardware sales.

That's not what you said. Their margins on software and hardware are irrelevant to what they, as a company, make most money off on — which was your original claim on which you are wrong and got called out on.

So annoying when people can't just admit they're wrong and instead gaslight people with their changed narrative.

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