i don't think there's much mystery here. apple's strategy has been pretty consistent with their apparent mission--ubiquitous computing for regular (but not poor) folks--for years now, since the success of ipod revealed itself as a foothold for apple to launch the iphone and set it on this path.
the iphone is a huge stepping stone to that future, and it will still be relevant for a while (if no longer novel and sexy). carplay, home, airpods, watch, even icloud--all that stuff now wraps around the iphone to create pieces of a future personal computing cocoon. over time, the integrations between them will be more and more seamless until the iphone disappears, absorbed into those other devices.
apple's current services growth is part of this strategy, not the strategy itself. it has to build out that part of the business (particularly video content/entertainment) to set itself up to be competitive in that future market that the other faang companies are also vying for.
(as an aside, the movie her seems to be a neat extrapolation of apple into the future, minus the clunky ending)
the iphone is a huge stepping stone to that future, and it will still be relevant for a while (if no longer novel and sexy). carplay, home, airpods, watch, even icloud--all that stuff now wraps around the iphone to create pieces of a future personal computing cocoon. over time, the integrations between them will be more and more seamless until the iphone disappears, absorbed into those other devices.
apple's current services growth is part of this strategy, not the strategy itself. it has to build out that part of the business (particularly video content/entertainment) to set itself up to be competitive in that future market that the other faang companies are also vying for.
(as an aside, the movie her seems to be a neat extrapolation of apple into the future, minus the clunky ending)