So, why would they ever abandon their actual cash cow? Case-in-point: iPhone 4, 720p video, and iMovie (on the iPhone). If you made iMovie like Apple has, the man-hours invested in that would demand a higher price than a mere $5, right? However, that version of iMovie is a selling point for the phone--which, coincidentally, is where they make their money. The same is true for their Macs and Laptops: they make the biggest margins in their hardware.
And I have to say, as someone who's chided the "our-size-fits-you" model, it sure hasn't hurt Apple's business. They've money in the bank (>$50bn) and a dedicated following.
Apple is a hardware company. Apple hardware could easily compete with Apple software running on third-party hardware. As far as software goes, I would rather be running Windows 7 (though I say this as a desktop Linux user.)
I don't think the market for a legal, barely supported Hackintosh is that large, but I do think opening it up would earn Apple some cash with minimal risk.
So, why would they ever abandon their actual cash cow? Case-in-point: iPhone 4, 720p video, and iMovie (on the iPhone). If you made iMovie like Apple has, the man-hours invested in that would demand a higher price than a mere $5, right? However, that version of iMovie is a selling point for the phone--which, coincidentally, is where they make their money. The same is true for their Macs and Laptops: they make the biggest margins in their hardware.
And I have to say, as someone who's chided the "our-size-fits-you" model, it sure hasn't hurt Apple's business. They've money in the bank (>$50bn) and a dedicated following.