>Apple effectively gives iOS away (it’s a hardware company, after all), and Amazon gets Android for free
While I get what the author's saying here, it's a bit disingenuous to call either of those situations "free". Both companies invest nontrivial amounts of money into their OS. Apple develops their in-house OS, and Android is a "some assembly required" product.
While I get what the author's saying here, it's a bit disingenuous to call either of those situations "free". Both companies invest nontrivial amounts of money into their OS. Apple develops their in-house OS, and Android is a "some assembly required" product.