Doubtful. Apple only makes the barest profit on iTunes purchases; they essentially run the service at break-even to provide a complete end-to-end content story for the iPod ecosystem. Their profit comes from the margin on the device, and on the iPhone they will have already collected the big profit when you walk out of the store with the phone. If having an open platform allows them to sell appreciably more phones (with all the usability solutions that entails), they will happily do so.
by Ben — Jan 15
Doubtful. Apple only makes the barest profit on iTunes purchases; they essentially run the service at break-even to provide a complete end-to-end content story for the iPod ecosystem. Their profit comes from the margin on the device, and on the iPhone they will have already collected the big profit when you walk out of the store with the phone. If having an open platform allows them to sell appreciably more phones (with all the usability solutions that entails), they will happily do so.