That sounds backwards to me.
I can honestly say that their profits have never been something I've been impressed by, and indeed, for most of that time they didn't have impressive profits, so if I was impressed by profits I would have bought and recommended Windows PCs instead.
> > > they set out to build the best device
Surely it's equal parts of both: Apple try to make the best products (in order to) make the most money (in order to) make the best products (in order to) make the most money (in order to) make the best products (in order to) etc etc...
In the sandpit where Apple plays, you can't have one without the other. A beautiful symbiosis of business and craft.
I hope people don't lose their sense of surprise that Apple is "winning" with nice products or start to think it's inevitable, history tells us otherwise.
For example, Windows Server makes billions per quarter and probably is the Server OS that makes the most money for it's maker. But you won't find that argument on HN to say that Windows Server dominates the server OS market. In fact some believe that Windows has no viable presence in servers.
Sure MS might not have a viable presence in servers, but if they are making more money doing it than anyone else... by definition, they are winning. They aren't going to pack-up a billion-dollar-per-quarter sector of their company because they don't have the market share numbers they'd like. If anything, having such a successful business with such a small market share represents potential growth.