Steve has stated before that Apple is moving more into software development and licensing osx to OEM's is a logical step, there is much more money to be made in licensing osX than selling cheap PC hardware.
Software development (iLife, iWork, Final Cut Studio, Aperture) helps sell Macs and expand the Mac platform, there is little money made on the actual products.
That depends; every OS sold for a competitors hardware does not necessarily translate into a lost Mac sale. Given the lack of a mid-range Mac tower I suspect there are plenty of consumers who would prefer to run OSX but dont want to settle for hardware that doesnt meet their needs and/or pay extra for hardware they dont need.
Licensing OS X would be a disaster, Apple would have to support a myriad of hardware combination and if they wanted to innovate or get rid of legacy elements it would be a pain. Controlling the whole solution does not harm the company, it's profits are very healthy. Don't get trapped into the mindset that marketshare is the be all and end all. It is one, rather simplistic, easy-to-distrot** measure of success.
"Nobody wants to watch video on a iPod..."
"You can't mount the CD drive vertically in the iMac screen..."
"OSX will be optimized for the Bondi iMac..."
Let's start the list 😉
First one I'll give you.
The second one was certainly true at the time. The technology did not exist at the time to mount a super drive vertically without serious loss in performance.
The third one is fine. OS X was optimised for that machine. It ran (or rather still does run on rev A-D iMacs) with far greater reliability, security and stability than the Classic Mac OS.
I'll give you another to add to the list:
"2007 will be a great year for the Mac" MWSF 2007. Steve Jobs slipped this out with a wry smile on his face. I think we have a greater second half of the year to look forward to.
** Macintosh hardware generally has a longer average lifespan than a PC. It therefore follows that more PCs will be sold than Macs over a certain period, even if the installed base is the same. I know the installed base is not the same, but the point still holds.