Oh for f*ck's sake...
"Most of the so called innovation in the Iphone 6 (such as bonk to pay) has been in Android phones for years."
Apple's innovation wasn't the inclusion of NFC support in their phone (and watch). Apple's innovation was in the software that works with it, integrating it into the OS. Apple also went the extra mile in sorting out the back-end too. They got MasterCard, Visa and Amex on board.
Did Google bother doing that for Android phones? Did they feck.
While Android manufacturers scream "FRIST!" at every opportunity, they rarely bother with the much harder job of making sure each shiny new feature is actually useful. There's a vast chasm between fitting a component and a basic driver, and the far more difficult task of integrating it properly into the user experience.
El Reg readers really do need to stop viewing software and hardware as if these were two entirely separate domains that should always be treated individually. It's a bloody stupid way of approaching product design and always has been. The two components are of equal importance in producing something that is genuinely usable and meets the needs of the customer.
The reason Apple have been running away with all the cash isn't because they're really good. It's because their competitors have been so spectacularly bad.
And this is despite Apple literally spelling out exactly what their business model and philosophy in damned near every cheesy corporate identity advert they make. (Including, please note, the "not caring about being first" bit, which they explicitly state in that linked example.)
Biting the hand that feeds IT
