[citation][nom]rocso[/nom]it is men like this that have driven us to where we are today. i wonder where the world would be if they had had the same philosophy as apple in regards to innovation. you will be missed![/citation]
Actually, when Apple first started, they were very big into open systems. The Apple ][, ][+ and //e all were created to allow the user to open up, add cards, program, etc. It wasn't until the Lisa and Mac came out that the systems became closed.
In fact, I learned C on an Apple //e using the Aztec C Compiler which had it's own Unix-like environment for programming. So, if it weren't for Apple, I might not have gotten into programming and computers.
With Apple, I was able to program right from the DOS prompt. No need to buy anything as it was all built in. Next, I learned 6502 machine language programming. Again, no need for purchasing a program. CALL -131 put me into the monitor to begin entering hexadecimal operators to program in machine code. Or, you could launch into the monitor and then type F666G to launch into the mini-assembler to do assembly language programming. Once you were done, BSAVE was your friend to save it back to disk. Of course, that was good for small programs. I eventually got the Orca Macro assembler to do my assembly language programming.
So, as much as people hate Apple (I myself have a droid, not an iPhone but I don't hate Apple), they really elevated the hobbyist computer to a new level that brought video gaming on the computer to the forefront. I had SO many games for my Apple it isn't funny. In fact, I will go and run the Apple emulator on my PC when I feel really nostalgic for games like Ultima, Wizardy, Karateka, etc.
As it is, if it weren't for the iPhone, would we even have all the choices we have to choose from (iPhone, Android, Windows 7 phones)? That's the beauty of a free market. Apple is free to have tight reigns on their products which in turn drives innovation from other companies to create competing products. That gives us, the consumer, choices. That's better than some other countries where you don't have a choice.
I'll take Apple existing to help drive the market over having only one choice.