I've thought about this a lot, and I think it has to do with the fact that phone hardware doesn't need to be as interchangeable as computer hardware. There's ju

I've thought about this a lot, and I think it has to do with the fact that phone hardware doesn't need to be as interchangeable as computer hardware. There's just not that much demand from OEMs for swappable commodity phone hardware. So in a situation where hardware doesn't matter as much, Apple wins by controlling the entire platform and user experience. I think this will probably change, as we are starting to see, now that phone manufacturers can get a smartphone operating system for free.