There’s no way you are paying for 5 years of software development and your hardware for $1300. Suppose half the cost of iPhone was to build the physical object (likely low, given Apple’s 35% overall gross margins), you’re effectively saying that iOS is worth $10/mo, which is a gross underestimate. It is at least as complex a piece of software as Creative Cloud which costs $30/mo. As another benchmark, premium Android phones cost about as much as iPhone, but all the development costs of Android are primarily borne by a different vendor than the device maker.

Developing a model for your voice assistant that can route requests to the right handler is non-trivial. I think in a forum of software developers, I shouldn’t have to argue that there are many good faith reasons for this.

> you’re effectively saying that iOS is worth $10/mo, which is a gross underestimate

Windows costs me way less than that, why should iOS cost 500$?

Why should the most successful commercial operating system in history with ongoing, major annual updates be as cheap as an operating system that’s been in maintenance mode for almost a decade?

OK even if I accept your argument, I still don’t believe that gives apple the right to stifle their competition by forcing them to jump through arbitrary hoops. Like I’ve said - they are already giving Spotify access to Siri. They just make it deliberately painful. And as a software developer I really don’t think it would be remotely difficult to route calls for music to an alternative music app. They are already doing the hard work of deciding if a request is for music or something else.

By your logic Microsoft are also fine to force everyone to use internet explorer forever because they put so many hours into making windows.

That’s an argument that was lost 20 years ago.

I said nothing about the capabilities a platform provides. The point you are responding to is how to talk about a “fair price” for iOS, and who should pay for it. I don’t know why you bring up requirements about what interoperability platform providers should or must provide in this context.