Don't force people to buy expensive gear to use your smartphones.

Do the math! Apple sold 4 million Macs last quarter and . What are 85 percent of iPhone users doing? Using them as paperweights?

Rich, not-so-picky Americans might buy a $3000 Mac to use a $400 iphone [sic]...

Not only does Liston not know that you don't need a Mac to use an iPhone, he apparently also doesn't know that Macs start at $600 and iPhones start at $200. Seeking Alpha sure knows how to pick people to write about Apple, don't they?

The thing is, Google has something else to sell besides hardware; something so entirely different from the smartphone-related selling points that it does not need to tie Android to any hardware. It can afford to give customers freedom, because what it is selling - advertising - is not tied to any specific hardware platform.