I should put a caveat on that assertion I made. If it were extremely cheap to make an iPhone then Apple probably would sell the whole thing as a service instead

I should put a caveat on that assertion I made. If it were extremely cheap to make an iPhone then Apple probably would sell the whole thing as a service instead. Why bother buying an iPhone ever again when you can update for the small yearly subscription of 100/USD or whatever they felt would work for their business model in that situation. I think we're starting to see a slow movement toward the hardware of smartphones being mere platforms for exclusive content (Google Play Music vs Apple Music like how it's Amazon Video vs Netflix). Sadly, it means information won't be so free (libre or gratis) as it's always something you can justify as an extremely scarce, hard to produce item.