Google has so much more to benefit from consumers making that leap than by trying to train them on something new.

Yes of course, but Apple isn’t Target or Walmart. It only has 460+ retail locations in the world. Walmart has more than 5,000. Some companies rely almost wholly on retail while others rely more on online sales, while some are a mix. Apple may generate a huge amount of revenue per square foot, but it still treats its stores less as sales drivers and more as marketing tools.

You can find 2013 figures in Apple’s annual 10-K reports indicating that retail made about 12 percent of total revenue that year: http://investor.apple.com/financials.cfm

I just don’t think linking to a 10-K report is all that helpful for the average reader.

Apple has stopped breaking out its retail revenue figures since 2013, but in that year, retail generated only $20 billion of Apple’s total $171 billion in net sales. I don’t imagine with revenue ballooning to $230 billion for that ratio to have changed drastically in only three years.

2013: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/2090096451×0×701402/A406AD58-6BDE-4190-96A1-4CC2D0D67986/AAPL_FY13_10K_10.30.13.pdf

2015: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/2090096451×0×861262/2601797E-6590-4CAA-86C9-962348440FFC/2015_Form_10-K_As-filed_.pdf

Good point! Will note that.

At least for gaming, it does appear to encourage a F2P mindset, where games are given away for free so long as someone (or their kids) pony up in microtransactions. Then again, apps with a price tag haven’t fared too well on Android since the beginning.

Not too many details on that front, but we’ll let you know as soon as we find out.