But their "value proposition" comes from selling a complete product, in large part to people that don't care a whit about the difference between hardware and software.
Yes but their hardware always comes preloaded with software and services. Since they don't sell "naked" hardware, there's really no way to parse the value proposition. For what it's worth, Steve Jobs said multiple times at the D conference that in his mind, most of the value comes from the software...the hardware enables it and is the "pretty box".
Apple sells hardware and software for their hardware.
Microsoft sells software and hardware (XBOX, keyboards, mice, etc).
Google sells services.
Facebook sells private lives.
