The three company's product lines are very different but there's opportunity for comparison of similar product lines. I'll have to ask you:
Since Microsoft doesn't make computers, and Apple doesn't sell OS-X or its apps outside the context of a Mac system, you can't compare that product line. And Apple doesn't make a game console, so comparisons to the XBox are pointless. But they both made competing music players, so let's see...
How much profit did Microsoft make on the Zune family, vs. Apple on the iPod family?
With regard to Google, I'm not actually sure what product lines are comparable between Apple and Google, because although they have some areas of overlap (e.g. they both make OSes for phones), Apple's product is the whole thing, hardware + software + support, whereas Google's is just the OS.
I'm missing what you're thinking of, product-wise.
Now, alternatively, if you want to just lump the companies' product lines into three big homogeneous piles and compare those (that's a different way to compare, but okay), that's interesting too, and in that comparison I would hope that all three companies are making money -- they're still in business, after all.
But I don't know what their annual reports claim -- I don't follow the details. X dollars profit on Y dollars revenue after Z expenses, resulting in M% margin, that sort of thing. Why don't you tell me.
Do investors look at that level of detail? I think they go “Microsoft and Apple and Google make things on my phone and computer and websites, they’re in the same market”.
And what does this have to do with what developers believe is the more viable long-term mobile OS?