4 ms·

I think the point being made is that a once-off amount for the hardware might be way less than what they get to make over those 2 years that you use the device

• Chaebixi 9y ago
  That may be true, but it's also forgetting the fact that the Pixel-owner is a customer, whose needs and wants the product should be catered to. It's sort of like if Google sold a robot that happened to also steal money from your wallet. If they could get away with it, it'd be profitable for them, but there would still be something wrong with their behavior.
• bastijn 9y ago
  Exactly. But only in the case that the vendor already has the channels to turn user data into profit at the scale of Google. Very few other vendors could probably. Mining your input and serving it to millions scales really well. As long as they can do enough to keep the majority of their users happy enough to continue using the product it is most likely more profitable to get the data than sell the devices given the market for android phones and the position they are in.