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Comment by DivisionSol | Hacker News Reader

But did have everything to do with developing the hardware capable of running the game on a handheld device?

Which they then “sold” to an end user. (Scare quotes because my I don’t believe for a second my iPhone belongs to me; but Apple is kind enough to rent it to me...)

That's a pretty cynical outlook imo, these aren't the new John Deere tractors.

If/when my 11P EOL's half-way through the 20's I hope we'll have good enough homebrews to get Linux running like people do now on the 7.

I think it's a fair take given how locked down these devices are. Until I can install any software I want on my phone, it's not really my phone.

You say this as if the devices don't have profit margins and the companies aren't constantly adding to their cashpiles.

They're tacking on a recurring revenue stream (App Store) onto their one-time sale (iPhone). Margins on both fund the innovation machine.

Also, with the outrage over companies needing to layoff/cut hours during(now) Covid-19 because they didn't have a warchest saved up... Having a cashpile seems like a fiscally responsible thing to do for a company.

> They're tacking on a recurring revenue stream (App Store) onto their one-time sale (iPhone). Margins on both fund the innovation machine.

How does Samsung's devices division manage it?

Samsung put together hardware to make a phone. They don't develop the software (OS, API, directX equivalent, iCloud/GoogleDrive, etc...). It's maybe one tenth of what Apple does all things considered.

edit: Samsung does a bit of software, trying to push its own applications with subscriptions and bundling crapware pre installed with the phone.

> Samsung put together hardware to make a phone. They don't develop the software (OS, API, directX equivalent, iCloud/GoogleDrive, etc...).

Precisely, and they also profit off the phone.

And yet Apple double-profits off both the phone and the apps, and they shovel the cash away.

The protest by these companies is entirely sound.

Apple provides the entirety of the operating system, API, directX equivalent for games, complete set of development and debugging tools, authentication and much more.

If Samsung were to make a whole development and gaming platform, they would charge developers on their platform too. and they'd really need the money because that's truly a ton of work.

The protest is only about the service fee, 30% is too much.

IIRC Samsung is the author and main contributor to the F2FS filesystem used on many Android devices, so the do contribute, even to low level core functionality.

Not to mention that their cashpile is a hedge against very serious geopolitical risk, which Apple are taking making and distributing a device globally.

Is Epic taking that risk, or doing any of that work to reach this vast market?

No.

There is no concept of a “fair” margin beyond which companies may not charge more.

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