The Dreamcast was relatively open. I think the big reason that Apple kept the phone closed was because it could. People make the mistake of looking at it from a

The Dreamcast was relatively open. I think the big reason that Apple kept the phone closed was because it could. People make the mistake of looking at it from a Mac/PC perspective, when really the iPhone was aimed at a consumer market which was already used to phones where the carrier had all the power. Sure, Windows Mobile is pretty open, but how many people use WM compared to generic "text phones"? I'd bet the vast majority of iPhone switchers are coming from the latter category, where the phone company owns your phone for all intents and purposes.