I wonder if the play is to be able to differentiate themselves from the other phone manufacturers. Perhaps they think a free bundled laptop (that is cheap enough to make financial sense to include), instead of a wearable or tablet, could get a significant amount of people on the fence to choose Apple. Then again, they could likely get a lot of them by having a cheaper phone; perhaps though, their fear is cannibalization of the higher end iPhone sales? According to their latest statement, net sales of computer were only a fifth of that iPhone sales. I suppose they think it’s a better risk carving out more sales in the computer market over what they might lose on the entry level MacBook Air sales.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/fy2025-q4/FY25_Q4_Consol...

There’s bound to be multiple reasons, heck, it could even just be internal politics. I too am curious.