I'm currently reading Job's official bio, and from what I can tell from reading the book, the whole idea of locking down software on the iPhone and iPad was so

I'm currently reading Job's official bio, and from what I can tell from reading the book, the whole idea of locking down software on the iPhone and iPad was so that he could try and control every single aspect of the user's experience from end to end out of his perfectionist ideals. I think the iPad and iPhone platforms will inevitably become more open as time goes on, and I think the next phase requires it (an awful lot of the apps are completely underwhelming compared to the possibilities of the devices), and as far as their computers go, they're sufficiently open enough for me to do what I want to do (which is linux based web app development and sysadmin type work). As mentioned in other comments, Jobs did champion the iTunes Store as DRM free, and he got that in the end.