Charles on… anything that comes along

I’m sitting on the train, using my Apple laptop.

Just opposite is a guy using a Dell. Who also has an iPhone.

Question: which of us puts more money in Apple’s pocket? My MacBook is a one-off purchase - there’s no ongoing payment to Apple through it.

By contrast, the iPhone involves a (rolling?) contract that lasts - correct me, I’m offline when I write this - 18 months, during which one puts a lot of money into Apple’s coffers. (And O2’s, of course.)

And it’s definitely an iPhone, not an iPod Touch: he’s typing away, which you’re not really going to do on a Touch, are you?

So which of us is the “Apple user”? Which is the one who’s enriching Apple more? The one whose computer broadcasts its identity through the glowing logo on the lid, or the one who has a phone discreetly tucked away, except when he changes tracks on its music player?

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• Palm is in trouble - the sort of trouble Apple was in around 1996 (1 June 2005; score: 35.31%)
• Sorted: how my 10.3.7 Finder isn't corrupt at all (9 March 2005; score: 34.92%)
• '1,000 songs is enough' (5 May 2005; score: 31.81%)