What Free service has Apple shut down? Their major that's been around for a while is iCloud/etc, which before was MobileMe, which before was .Mac, which before was iTools.
I don't know the technical details of how those back-end services relate to each other (i.e. evolution from one to the next, being rebranded, or re-built from scratch each time, etc) but there are very few things that they've truly shut down.
For a while after MobileMe and before some of the major improvements to iCloud, Keychain sync was not available, but I'm struggling to think of free services they've actually shut down.
A notice on the FoundationDB site notes that it’s no longer offering downloads of its database software. "
Granted, Apple doesn't acquire at Google's or Facebook's rate, so the sample size is smaller
I understand, and agree with your basic sentiment and point. I don't get why you include Apple with Google and Facebook.
Google and Facebook famously make all their money from offering 'free' services and monetising eyeballs on ads.
Apple famously makes all it's money from (traditionally) selling hardware, and recently, through it's digital media stores.
Apple give very little away "for free" - sure, they don't charge for the OS, but its financed by the purchases of hardware, not being a privacy whore.