[mythz]

iOS is a major cost to develop that's given away for free, continually invested in, advanced, developed & updated. Apple is allowed to have more than one business model on the platform they built, which was their primary focus that reshaped the company at a great opportunity cost to their other businesses. Ultimately the Company bet paid off & became successful against a number of incumbents who lost fortunes trying to compete in Mobile OS's. The App Store is now one of their major sources of revenue for having built a successful platform (a category they helped pioneer).

The nominal annual fee is a cost for accessing the dev tools only, it's in no way a royalty-free cost to sell products on one of the most lucrative markets in the world - that's what their standard royalty % (unchanged from the outset) covers.

[sumedh]

> iOS is a major cost to develop that's given away for free

How is it given for free, you pay for it when you buy the phone.

[orangepanda]

You dont just get the current OS that's on the phone, but also the upcoming ones for the next 5-6 years[0] for free. A phone bought in 2015 still gets updates.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/eS3ifSC.jpg

[Hamuko]

And if my iPhone gets updates in 2025, it doesn't change the fact that I paid 1200 euro for it. How much is the raw manufacturing cost of the 11 Pro (256 GB)?

Also, if the App Store revenue is for iOS development, does that mean that people who buy an iPhone and never pay for an app or an IAP are a net loss to Apple?

[e12e]

By that rationale, windows 10 is free too.

[sumedh]

All those "free" upgrades are part of the phone when you buy it.

You cannot buy just the hardware without the OS at cheaper cost because its a combined hardware/OS cost.

[mythz]

You're paying for the phone, there is no cost nor can you pay for iOS. The current and all future versions is & always has been free.

[modeless]

It's nonsensical to take a product that can't be purchased in pieces and separate the pieces to call one half free. iOS has always been included but it will never be free.

[StavrosK]

You're paying for iOS, the phone is free.

[mythz]

Yeah that's right it costs $1249 for each download of iOS (Beta's are 1/2 price), but Apple gives you as many iPhone Max Pro's as you want, mailed along with your free sim! Which doesn't matter if you lose or break out of warranty you can always get a new replacement Free! Family plans are the best, you can install your 1 iOS purchase on 5 free iPhone's - giving free iPhone's away was truly an ingenious revolutionary business model.

[sumedh]

Can I just buy the hardware at a cheaper price without the OS, if not then its not free, its part of the total cost.

[mythz]

That's nonsensical, if you could buy the hardware cheaper or iOS separate then you would be paying for iOS, you can't, Apple doesn't sell iOS, it gives it away. The cost for new iOS versions is irrelevant to the cost of hardware it's running on, it's free for all their devices for as long as they meet the hardware requirements for running new versions.

You could buy an iPhone and put a jail break OS on it, you're still paying the full amount for the device.

[sumedh]

> it's free for all their devices

Have you never heard the phrase "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"?

The reason Apple does not sell the hardware at a cheaper cost should tell you that the OS is not free. The cost is included. Its a package deal.

> it's free for all their devices for as long as they meet the hardware requirements for running new versions.

If the OS is free then why not let it run on very old models, it will run very slow but that should not matter since the OS is free, right?

[mythz]

> Have you never heard the phrase "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"?

Yes, it's a meaningless cliche which is often untrue (I've had many free lunches myself). But "free/gratis" does have a definition to mean "without cost or payment", e.g. how much it costs to acquire/download every version of iOS going back a decade.

Have you ever heard of alternative business models? Try Googling Android, Tizen OS, Web OS, Firefox OS for alternative mobile OS's, it's nearly impossible to for a mobile OS to become mainstream if you had to pay for it.

> If the OS is free then why not let it run on very old models, it will run very slow but that should not matter since the OS is free, right?

Because Apple has to support the devices it says it supports & they don't run acceptably. This isn't new, a lot of commercial software wont support software that doesn't meet a minimum hardware requirement.

[Hamuko]

>You could buy an iPhone and put a jail break OS on it, you're still paying the full amount for the device.

If I buy a new TV and throw the remote in the trash, the remote was not part of the cost of the TV?

Also, "jail break OS"? Isn't that just iOS?

[mythz]

> If I buy a new TV and throw the remote in the trash, the remote was not part of the cost of the TV?

A hardware remote is, which has an actual per unit cost (a software remote wouldn't be). The cost of Software distribution is effectively $0, a valid comparison would be if you bought your new TV with Android (which costs $0 for the manufacturer to include) you could replace the TV OS with Tizen OS which is also free, neither OS costs anything to the manufacturer or consumer and you don't get it cheaper for purchasing the same TV without an OS.

> Also, "jail break OS"? Isn't that just iOS?

There used to be a healthy alt OS ecosystem for iPhone before newer iPhone's have become increasingly lockdown where it doesn't appear you can do that anymore, the best you can do is JailBreak iOS and install a custom package manager and install custom software not permitted on the App Store.

[e12e]

> iOS is a major cost to develop that's given away for free

Are you sure it's free? The only way to buy ios, is to buy a device running it. It would seem reasonable that part of the premium you pay for eg an iPad is equivalent to an oem license for ios?