They "double-downed" on that decision ten years ago, and now they are the most profitable company in the world. I think it's safe to say whatever bet they made paid off handsomely.

If you look at the success of apple - they do one thing really really well; make products for people with money to spend. Apple doesnt care about anything other than customers who can afford to pay, and are willing to pay, for their products.

Apple makes good products, but they arent without frustrations or limitations, and you'd better accept these if you want what you do get from apple products.

You know that the engineering will be in the top ~90%, for example. What is the 10% or so that apple fails on WRT to engineering; accessories, flexibility/upgradability, vendor-lock-in on software. All of which simply lead you to spend more money on supporting having apple products.

Accessories: How much money have you spent on chargers, cables, headphones, cases, screen-protectors, screen repairs?

Flexibility/upgradability: Want more storage/ram? Buy the next model - no upgrades.

Software: Fewer OSS options for software/apps.

There are certain things I like about apple, and certain things I hate. But the primary thing I hate is that you cant do much without paying a premium...

it's paid off handsomely and cut off apples prospects of expanding beyond the 15% market share they currently enjoy. sure owning 15% of the global smartphone market makes them money but androids 85% share ensures googles dominance in the sector unless apple lowers some of its hardware walls and turns them into bridges.

#buildbridgesnotwalls

What does market share matter when you've captured the part of the market where all the significant margins are?

A company that trades like a railroad company shouldn't be gloating about how little of the market share they want. there is no room for apple to expand with their rich people first strategy. Eventually you run out of new rich people to sell your products to.

Apples investors do not expect them to grow much more unlike Google or Facebook which both act as monopolies in both the smartphone and online markets. I'm sure apple knows what it wants but it sure doesn't show any abition to take over the world with their products.

It also spares them scrutiny from antitrust laws which I am sure they appreciate now with the recent Android fine.