I think it's a bit misleading to call Safari a "high margin product" based on that logic, considering they could have made even more profit by not making it at all and just charge Google the exact same money to let them ship Chrome as the default iOS browser... (I mean an actual Chrome browser, not the Chrome skin of a WebKit browser that Google currently has to settle for.)
I'm not saying I'd prefer that scenario, just that it would have been a feasible choice for Apple and as such their Safari costs are actually profit losing not profit generating (other than potentially indirectly, if Apple is correct that limiting devices to their own browser engine improves the product and therefore aids device sales, but I don't think anyone would argue that's significant enough to call it their biggest profit driver).
If a supermarket has their own store brand products it's fair to say that those products have a profit margin, even if the store could replace their spot on the shelf with a product of someone else.
Sure, but if they get to keep $x per item for both own brand and other brand products, but have zero expenses for other brand products vs. having to pay to create/ship/etc. the own brand versions, you wouldn't talk about what great profit margins the own brand products have.
Plus, in this store nobody is buying any of the items, the only revenue is from the Nestlé sign above the door, which they'd earn even if they threw all of their own brand products into the bin rather than letting customers have them. So it's not an exact analogy...
I'm talking about historic choices rather than current options - but yes I agree that even if they wanted to, they'd face legal trouble if they tried now to replace Safari with an exclusive deal for Chrome to be the only browser.
I'm not saying I'd prefer that scenario, just that it would have been a feasible choice for Apple and as such their Safari costs are actually profit losing not profit generating (other than potentially indirectly, if Apple is correct that limiting devices to their own browser engine improves the product and therefore aids device sales, but I don't think anyone would argue that's significant enough to call it their biggest profit driver).