Sorry if I was unclear, but what I was saying was that this would be unsustainable because the only way it'd be possible is if Valve was subsidizing each unit in hopes of recouping their losses on Steam game sales.
If that happened, Valve would get bankrupted by companies buying up subsidized Steam Machines with no intention of playing games on them.
Yes that's what I understood. But it'd still be insteresting.
Amazon was once a bookstore. There's nothing stopping Steam from adapting to a "Steam Business Machines" / "Steam OS Business Edition" once it has a foothold in the business market. After all, the store already distributes software, they're just not as popular as games. So if this scenario were to happen, and Microsoft failed to react, I'm sure Steam would adapt very quickly to take advantage of it rather than sit and wait for the bankruptcy.
If that happened, Valve would get bankrupted by companies buying up subsidized Steam Machines with no intention of playing games on them.