While I din't anticipate playing in this/these related sandbox(es), I've been remiss in -at least- grokking the $forces and related factors as will, either:

A) Doom some control-freak Mfg to purgatory (for over-stepping the Authority-figure role, or perhaps becoming Microsoft-Grade-blind, in time.. etc.)
B) Limit the future possibilities of insanely-Great ideas--via monopolistic $greed-level 'skins' which limit (in Android's case) the ept person in exploiting innate options of the basic OS.
C) Increase the chances for some ideal-combo of say, full access to the designed-in options of the given OS and some guaranteed mechanism for timely
(and un-Crippled) updates from the phone supplier/agents--for those wishing to tinker (or seeking only a few of the 'enhanced aps' capabilities
--while still, not just to tinker.)

As a beneficiary of the Apple walled-garden, I appreciate especially therefrom:
the freedom Not-to have to regularly tinker with the connecting-rods and tappets: if I don't Want-to!
(Meanwhile, I can and occasionally Do: check out "what's Complaining?" re Safari's arguably unoptimized Webkit engine, say.)

Some replies are well-conceived and derive from the obviously ept; altogether--a nice summary of the current opposing? or at least varied user mindsets.
And it does seem clear-enough: piss-off enough of the smartest Developers and.. your Marque (however slick and $-funded) can wither.
Can that keep The Beast, Apple, Google (all).. appropriately chastened, so as to evade Scenarios A, B?

Seems clear overall: what *most* phone buyers want is--what also all these entries provide quite well: make/receive calls (!) do IM and (is this True?) 'play games'.
Unsurprising.

Ergo, seems pretty obvious that: the 'average user' will know little of the workings of the guts of that pretty box, could care less
--and like most others, knows squat about 'RF', bandwidth, what's-in-a-packet and ... why should I care?
Just as re their cars, appliances, and all the other techno gadgets flashing SET TIME.

Still.. would hate the thought that Redmond-think types could.. in any next: find a way to degrade all future options -->Doze-level,
aka more Deserved- fear of the Next crash + useless error messages. :-/

(I mean.. someday I might just have a Use for one of these teensy nodes to the Seven Billion hive-dwellers Out There.)


My 3 kopeks