That's where you are wrong. Ecosystem is a win-win situation for consumers and big business, but also for small business by selling apps and services within the ecosystem. What is bad for consumers is lack of competition. The competition need not be hard or fierce, it's enough with a potential alternative to keep the prices reasonable. The world of PCs circles around MS Windows, but Linux is an alternative and so is Apple. Even though both have tiny market shares compared with Windows, they pull hard.

Windows, or rather DOS, won the PC race because of killer applications like Lotus and Word Perfect in business (and home), games, and because the IPM PC was cloned making a market for subcomponents and new PC brands.

The situation today regarding mobile computing and communication is completely different. There are no killer applications tied to specific brands. There are no platforms that are better in gaming than others. There are no specific business application that also have synergies in the home, except basic phone functionality that you can get with the cheapest dumb phone. This is why RIM is heading to the sewers, artificially made nonsense mailing platform that has no future what so ever.

Android though, seem to have won the battle of the smartphone OS'es, mainly because old dumb phones users head directly to Android. With the Asus Eee Transformer (and honeycomb), Android also is showing that it can be usable also for business in MS Windows/PC land. It is actually easy to envision a (distant) future where Android rules everything, also the business-PC market. But MS will rule the business PC market for a long time yet, and all MS/Nokia has to do is simply to make tablets and smartphones with seamless integration with business and games, and they will carve out a large market share. That integration need only be a similar(ish) look and feel and access to the same online services.

I think with time it will become increasingly obvious how hopeless the MeeGo alternative was, and also how dead-end the Symbian alternative really is, and how important ecosystems are.

Edit: I don't think I made it clear enough? The point is, the ecosystem IS the killer application just like Word Perfect, Lotus, Wolfenstein, Doom, MS FS and so on for the PC. We may not like it, but it doesn't change anything. The Eee Transformer is a killer application all by itself, finally a tablet that is useful in the home and for business, but it would be nothing without the success of Android and the Google ecosystem. I would prefer a smaller version though, 7 inch screen, but it's good enough as it is.