Their margins on laptops are thinner but the AppStore is not as relevant there.
The situation is the other way round - it’s the App Store that makes the iPhone useful. Windows Phone (the remake one) had good hardware, it literally was killed by lack of apps. I had one, I miss it.
Epic? Which never released the Unreal Engine for Windows Phone and now cries the loudest about the status quo.
Or the 1000’s of developers who abandoned pre App Store distribution models in favor of Apple’s hardware, software and APIs, happily signed up to 30% revenue share with Apple that didn't change in 15 years? (other than go down to 15% for 90% of sellers who do under a million of annual revenue)
I do not take away from Apple that their customer service is top notch and for many users that matters as much as how good the SW is.
