I think almost everyone on this thread is missing the fact that we're comparing software, which is by all accounts, virtual, to any kind of hardware.
Software is iterable. I can login to any one of my websites, right now, fix a bug, hit save and everyone gets the change.
If I shipped a phone, let's say, in the case of Samsung - and a bug is found. No one get's the new phone with the battery fixed unless they go to a store (or online), buy a new one, wait for it to come in the mail and activate it.
We see software eating the world almost across the board. People are less carrying a xGB hard drive in their laptop bag and instead opting to use a DropBox or iCloud or etc... Because the software (dropbox, icloud) can follow us. You forget your USB hard drive at home and it could mean the world.
You no longer can buy Adobe products, and some (all?) Microsoft products are moving to subscription services. Again, it's easier to update software, send a notification that it's been updated then to ship a new CD / DVD.
Look at the Chromebook - a machine that by all accounts is worthless without an internet connection.
Hardware will continue to become agnostic. Get a new iPhone? Restore the backup from iCloud. Get a new MBP? Restore the backup from iCloud. Get a new Chromebook? Login to Google and everything you had on the old one is now on the new one.
Remember the green, dummy IBM mainframe terminals? That's where hardware is going. Just with a lot more power, they look much better, are much smaller and more feature rich.
You'll still buy a new phone, or a new laptop - but you buy that once. You pay monthly for iCloud or your service of choice and the money is in the Software as a Service, not the hardware.
Another example - look at anything home automation related. You buy a thermostat for $250 - that's a 1 time sale. But if it has software that costs money monthly, and adds an added benefit; that's real, reoccurring profit you (as a company) can most likely expect month over month. So while your profit marking might be $50 on the thermostat, if that same buyer is spending $10 / month on your thermostat service; now they've spent $120 over the year and after you pay your developers... is almost guaranteed to be higher then the hardware's margins.