I'm skeptical of any pontifications and any claims in this area until after the iPhone application infrastructure is announced and deployed and in production.

I'm skeptical of any pontifications and any claims in this area until after the iPhone application infrastructure is announced and deployed and in production. The whole area is almost certainly subject to change. These reports and claims remind me of the folks that once carefully scrutinized which notables were perched atop Lenin's Tomb for the big Moscow parades, seeking to determine details of the Kremlin organizational structures based on who was at the dais. If Apple were running those Red Square parades -- and Apple clearly being quite good at marketing -- they'd probably throw a few ringers up there, just to get the chattering class chattering.