[Hypnotic2010]

Apple’s iPhone is currently the Model-T of smartphones, by which I mean that you get a limited choice of designs and colors, not that it is old. You can have any color as long as it’s black or white, and any size as long as it is the one size offered (granted, you can choose capacity, but a “line” of phones, it isn’t). You can also have any carrier in the US, as long as it is AT&T, and you can run any application, as long as it doesn’t create a creative problem for AT&T or Apple. In effect, with respect to applications and competition, it is like someone took a lot of the complaints folks have made about Microsoft, and wrapped them up into an Apple strategy. Of the three companies, Apple is the most limited. Strangely enough, its device is also the most desired, which is a credit to Apple’s design and execution, but probably suggests some of us are giving up our freedoms too easily.