And since monkbent didn't mention it, he is the author, so now the parent knows "what the author thinks" about Apple.

//Apple is a hardware company.

How is a company that makes OS X, iOS, iCloud services not a software company? Sure it sells hardware, but not hardware that's a brick.. People buy the hardware so they can use the software which pretty much means they sell a package that includes both hardware and software..

Ben means that the end goal of OS X, iOS, and iCloud are to sell more hardware, not to be individually thriving SKUs (as evidenced by the declining price of any non-hardware offering by Apple over the past decade). Every (or, at least almost every) decision made at Apple is made with the goal of improving the experience of owning Apple hardware, which is their main profit center.

This is a useful way to understand Apple, but not companies in general. Movie theaters make the majority of their profit off of concessions, but they are not popcorn companies.

They now give away all their software (despite upcharging for more iCloud space). On the Macs, Apple has embraced that people want to run Windows and supported Boot Camp for generations of hardware now. The entire retail outlet is dedicated to selling the hardware and accessories for said hardware, with a single vertical column (maybe that much) left over for software. They provide an App Store on both platforms, but produce a minority of what they sell there. Apple is a hardware company.

For what it's worth, I get your point, though. My preference is to use OSX over Windows these days, but that's because I find it to be the best intersection of *nix boxes (which all of my servers run) and a pleasant UI with great apps (because I'm still a human, and sometimes I tire of the command line). But look at the way iCloud took forever to become stable - if it's even there now - or the recent decreased in perceived QA (iOS 8.0.1, Apple Maps), and you can tell Apple's focus isn't on software as much as hardware.

The hardware is pretty much an expensive dongle for the software.

You're right, but I would phrase it a bit differently:

I believe Apple is a product company. They make things that people want to buy and use. Their products are built from a combination of hardware and software/services.

Microsoft is also a product company. The difference is that they make a lot of different types of products. Some are things people buy and use like Xbox, Surface, and Lumia. Some are "platforms" like Windows and SQL Server. And they still sell "software" like Office.

Asus is a hardware company.