I thought in 2007 and I still think today the fundamental reason why there was space for the iPhone to be the phenomenon it was is that 1) The success of the iP

I thought in 2007 and I still think today the fundamental reason why there was space for the iPhone to be the phenomenon it was is that 1) The success of the iPod let them dictate terms to AT&T and get subsidies no one else could while keeping the customer experience clean in a way competitors couldn't (US phones had an unbelievable amount of crapware in the mid 00s, including great ideas like flashing the firmware to prevent camera phones from transferring photos over USB and forcing you to use a carrier service that covost $1/photo) 2) Microsoft's antitrust hangover prevented their mobile department from strong arming carriers earlier on Microsoft's real mistake post iPhone release (and definitely post Android release) was not immediately making Windows phone free, OSS would have been nice, but I think most manufacturers moved to Android as their flagship because they got it free.