[jarrettcoggin]

Captain Obvious here.

Amazon wants you (to buy through them, because they are like Walmart, getting a sliver of each transaction, but making an enormous amount of transactions). You get liberality with content.

Google wants you (to view their ads, because every time they display an ad/make a conversion, they get a sliver). You get liberality with hardware/software.

Apple wants you (to buy an iDevice, because every time you buy an iDevice, you just gave them a 30%-50% of the product price as straight profit, in addition to being locked into their marketplace, which they get a hunk of each sale, in addition to ads being run through free apps and them getting a sliver for the view/conversion). You get a well-done, end-to-end experience.

[shawndumas]

I agree it is obvious -- to you and I. how do you explain all the disagreement though...