@rawrgrr Just out of curiosity, how much does Microsoft make from every Xbox game sold? I would wager that it’s less than 30%. But there are a whole host of other issues as well.
For your second point, the app wasn’t the money maker. Look at the cost of a PS3; pretty low for what you get, and not exactly profitable for Sony. Now look at the price of games; that is where the money is for them. Your suggestion would not work in this case. Now, if it were a game instead of a gateway then you would have a valid point, but it would also be a whole other ballgame.
“Best for the average consumer” is subjective at best. I personally believe that freedom of choice is a good thing whereas Apple seems to want to do the choosing for you. I believe that while making things intuitive is good, making them so simple that your brain atrophies is bad (I believe I touched on that in a recent PM to you), especially if done in a way that restricts choice. To make matters worse, they really aren’t any simpler or more intuitive than others; they just get the credit for being so due to PR and the coattails of their innovations twenty years ago.
Lastly, it may surprise you, but I don’t actually hate Apple. I respect them for much of what that have done. However, I do hate the way they operate. I am not a fan of megalomaniac bullies no matter how cool their products are. I want them to just STFU, take some of the money they are spending on lawyers, and dump it into more R&D. I want their next generation of products to actually be an improvement instead of a facelift. Basically, I want them to either live up to their reputation or stop acting like they own the world. I really don’t think they want what is best for the world; I think they want what is best for their shareholders and Steve’s ego. If it were otherwise then they would listen to their critics a bit more, and stop acting like they are the 800 pound gorillas of electronics.