> Before the iPhone, phones were a closed platform.
That's not even remotely true and I wish people would stop repeating this like it's a fact. Smartphones existed for years before the iPhone and all had user-installable software. My first touch screen smartphone was the Sony Ericsson P800 released in 2002 (5 years before the iPhone) and I had plenty of third party applications for it. I went through a number of different smartphones by different manufacturers and different operating systems before the iPhone ever got apps. And, unlike the iPhone, there were no restrictions.
That's not even remotely true and I wish people would stop repeating this like it's a fact. Smartphones existed for years before the iPhone and all had user-installable software. My first touch screen smartphone was the Sony Ericsson P800 released in 2002 (5 years before the iPhone) and I had plenty of third party applications for it. I went through a number of different smartphones by different manufacturers and different operating systems before the iPhone ever got apps. And, unlike the iPhone, there were no restrictions.