I think this is a brilliant business move. It keeps the overall experience of all that you would call 'iPhone' contained exclusively by Apple; this dramaticall

I think this is a brilliant business move. It keeps the overall experience of all that you would call 'iPhone' contained exclusively by Apple; this dramatically dampens the chaos that could be potentially introduced by having too open of a system. This exclusivity factor has served it well with the overall experience called 'Mac OSX' (I excluded 'Macintosh' on purpose because everything prior to OSX was a waste of time - ESPECIALLY my own!). The iPhone platform is powerful, and letting loose that power in the wild could cause serious issues for the overall 'iPhone' experience (think of unwanted software rendering your iPhone experience worthless). Apple is paving a new path with iPhone and the whole experience of iPhone. The last thing they want is for that experience to degrade because of too much chaos. This goes against the grain of geek culture where diversity is king (and I have ALWAYS subscribed to this rule). But in the long run it will server Apple and iPhone users very well. As another example, the 2008 Subaru STI is an overall dream machine that allows you to mod the hell out of it so that you can beat a Ferrari in a quarter mile competition, but which one will get you laid more often? Which one of these cars will cost more in maintenance fees? The Ferrari is far less practical, but it has its utility as a unique experience factory. The iPhone is not a superior product but it is a superior experience in this same way. The second you see an iPhone whipped out in public (forgive the poor imagery), you see a symbol of experience and quality, not a smart phone ('smart phone' is what I think when I see a Blackberry). I REALLY hate to admit it, but there is a certain status associated with being an owner of an iPhone in that the whole experience it represents is vastly superior to any other experience for any other phone (disclaimer: I do NOT own an iPhone, I own a Blackberry because I need to get things done). Apple is trying to sell MUCH more than a product: it is trying to sell culture and in order to guide this culture properly it needs to exercise crazy control.