A Look Inside Apple's User Data Utilization Wars (reuters.com)

tlhIngan writes: It's no secret Apple [is] on a privacy bent as of late. But that extends inside of Apple as well with various internal groups fighting for access to user data and often being denied by Apple's "privacy czars" who ensure Apple doesn't collect information they don't [need], that information is used only [in] ways the user allows, and to design the systems to keep user data separate. This has lead to many conflicts, especially for the Siri and iAd team who often cannot access [the] user data they need. Of course, Apple can do this because unlike Google, Facebook or [Amazon], Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data.

Comments

You're title is correct in that you're wrong

[rsborg]

"Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data."

iAd ... http://advertising.apple.com/
iBeacon ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
iTunes ...

All of these use user data to facilitate advertising or other revenue for Apple.

Revenue breakdown for Apple:
http://www.statista.com/statis...

So they make 80% of their revenue from hardware. iTunes exists because of the hardware. All of that other stuff like iAd/iBeacon is probably a rounding error.

Oh and:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/0...

Re:You're title is correct in that you're wrong

[NatasRevol]

Most people do these days. My family has half a dozen iDevices. If they're hooked up to the computer once a year, that seems like a lot.