Curious where you are basing your revenue numbers from. Per Apple's reported statistics for 2014[1], developers pulled in $10 billion dollars in revenue from the app store. That means that Apple's revenue from the app store should also be in the low billions (based on the 70/30 cut they take from app store sales and purchases).

All without manufacturing logistics and hardware production costs. Obviously the computing infrastructure, payment processing and software engineering of the app store has a cost, but I'd imagine much less than those involved with building, distributing and selling a computer or mobile device.

It may not generate as much as hardware sales do, but billions of dollars hardly seems like spare change.

[1] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/08App-Store-Rings-in...

>That means that Apple's revenue from the app store should also be in the low billions (based on the 70/30 cut they take from app store sales and purchases).

That makes it around $3 billion, before taxes and infrastructure expenses, payment deals, etc.

$3 billion is spare change for Apple. They have 200 times than in cash.

Again you post information without any sources. A more accurate figure is $178 billion in cash at the beginning of this year.[1] That means they have around 59 times more than that amount in cash, not the 200 you claimed. Also, I think its telling that Apple themselves mentioned App Store Sales as a main factor in their revenue earnings for Q4 of their 2014 fiscal year. [2] What's important is how much of their total annual revenue and profits are derived from App Store sales, not how it compares to the amount of cash they have on hand.

As others have mentioned, there are other benefits from native applications, like vendor lock-in, which Apple isn't going to get with web-based applications.

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/28/investing/apple-cash-178-bil...

[2] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/10/20Apple-Reports-Four...

>That means they have around 59 times more than that amount in cash, not the 200 you claimed

Still, same order of magnitude, and still many times over their app profit.

>Also, I think its telling that Apple themselves mentioned App Store Sales as a main factor in their revenue earnings for Q4 of their 2014 fiscal year.

Telling towards what?

I don't see how you can justify being off on your facts by 3-4 times by saying its still in the same order of magnitude. You overestimated their cash on hand by about 422 billion dollars. Again, I see the cash on hand as a weak argument. What really matters is how much annual revenue and profit it brings in. Apple is going to be concerned about anything that adds or takes away from their revenue in a significant way.

Its telling that App Store sales are a significant source of revenue for Apple. One that could possibly justify not making improvements to Safari that could make it better compete with native applications.

It's not about the money from the app store, it's about the lock-in from apps, which is far more valuable.

Not much lock-in. Most apps are either cross platform or for casual use, and I could buy an Android phone and be productive tomorrow, transferring all my images, documents, contacts and such in a couple of hours.

People don't feel locked with their app purchases. Case in point, the large volumes of people going from Android to iOS and vice versa.

The App Store may not be a money maker, but it definitely is a competitive advantage when selling iPhones over the competition esp. Android phones.

According to caniuse.com, it's not present in any Safari browser: http://caniuse.com/#feat=vibration