I disagree. Fundamentally, every company makes product decisions primarily for financial reasons.
Apple has been focused on finances for most of its existence as an entity. If it appears they have become more focused on financial success recently, I would argue that's more likely due to market saturation than it is to any categorical change in their priorities.
EDIT: Changed and removed some wording to make the tone less condescending. Sorry about that.
> If it appears they have become more focused on financial success recently, that's more likely due to market saturation than it is to any categorical change in their priorities.
One could also cast it as an entirely predictable consequence of replacing a CEO who came up as a product person with one who came up as an operations person.
Apple's no stranger to saturating markets. They used to grow past that point, in part, by expanding into new markets that were peripherally related to the ones they already dominated in, and becoming a dominant player at those as well. They were remarkably good at it, too, with very few major missteps. They don't seem to be so good at that game anymore,though, so they're falling back on the top leadership's top skill: Expanding margins.
Thank you. I should've stated my position more extensively. By financial decisions I mean decisions that can be directly correlated to increased margins. The original comment was speculating that Apple might not sell the iPhone SE because they have lower margins, and that might make them more money in the short term, but if some people switch to Android for a smaller device, they'll lose long term market share. In that regard you're right and I'd rather call these kind of decisions short sighted or something along those lines.
I'd argue that Apple making product decisions for mainly financial reasons is a recent problem. My memory could betray me though.