Apple has reminded everyone in tech, that there are better routes to mountains of profit than "free" products. When the Scoble's of the world are willing to drop 2000+ dollars (including cost of phone) for the ability to take a picture faster, or more likely, just to look cool to friends, then why not.
Who wants to be hostage to advertisers anyway? That unpleasant road, just involves turning all your users into controllable lab rats.
If Google is trying to make a shift, I say high time and all the best.
