There’s something almost funny about how the market covers Apple. Every semester brings a fresh round of articles about the iPhone — new colors, new cameras, new price. Meanwhile, another money machine runs quietly in Cupertino.
Apple Services. Two words representing, in 2026, the most financially interesting part of a $3 trillion company.
The numbers that speak for themselves
Apple’s Services segment — which covers the App Store, Apple TV+, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay, Apple Fitness+, AppleCare, and a few others — consistently generates operating margins in the 70–75% range. Hardware runs at 35–40%.
To put that in perspective: if Apple Services were a standalone company, it would be one of the most profitable tech businesses in the world. Not the largest by revenue, but among the most efficient at converting revenue into profit.
And Services keeps growing at double digits, even as iPhone sales plateau in some markets.
The brilliant trap
The honest truth about Apple’s strategy is simple and slightly uncomfortable for consumers: every iPhone sold is a gateway to Services. The hardware isn’t the destination — it’s the beginning of a commercial relationship that can span five to seven years.
You buy an iPhone. You subscribe to iCloud because the free storage isn’t enough. You pick up Apple TV+ because there’s a series you want to watch. You start using Apple Pay, progressively. You get AppleCare because repairing an iPhone out of warranty has become prohibitively expensive.
Apple One — the bundle that packages several services together — simplifies the subscription decision. The logic is classic bundle pricing: each service individually seems reasonable, but five or six together represent a meaningful monthly commitment.
The lease-to-own as the newest tile
The leasing program developed with Klarna — allowing users to pay for an iPhone monthly without ever owning it — is the most recent piece of this puzzle.
There are two advantages for Apple. First: smoothing sales throughout the year rather than depending on launch-cycle spikes. Second, more strategically: a user who leases their iPhone is even more captive to Services than one who bought it outright. They stay in the ecosystem by default, at every contract renewal.
What this says about the future
The question isn’t whether Apple Services will continue growing — almost certainly yes. The question is: how far can Services monetization go before it hits real resistance?
There are signals. The European Commission is watching the App Store closely, with rules on app market competition. Companies like Spotify and Epic have fought legal battles over the commissions Apple charges.
Apple navigates these tensions skillfully. But growing Services monetization inevitably creates friction — with regulators, with third-party developers, and sometimes with users themselves who are beginning to notice that their annual Apple spend represents several hundred euros.
Apple’s bet is that the value delivered justifies the price. Retention rates, so far, support that bet. The question is at what point the regulators, rather than the users, become the binding constraint.