Doing it the Apple way isn't free, either. Yes, Apple takes their traditional overly generous markup per memory increase, but there are liabilities in terms of

Doing it the Apple way isn't free, either. Yes, Apple takes their traditional overly generous markup per memory increase, but there are liabilities in terms of inventory. In a model like the iPhone's it means your 16GB phones are mostly loss-leaders anyway, probably why no one seems to give a shit about issues like the one in the article: because no one actually buys those phones, the inventory is just dead weight to get people in the door. It's also an extra step in manufacturing of course.