All this Apple bashing, Nokia bashing is getting me dizzy, and while I am of the bend who thinks Apple is more fashion then technology in its overall image (internally its as much technology as any other company, but it sells its tech with a lot of fashion flair, hence the image), I do have to agree here that Apple did change the rules of the game in the US mobile market.

Credit is due where it is true. Cant avoid this fact.

Firstly Apple forced these basterdly service providrers to negotiate on its terms. Thats a BIG change. Everywhere in the world it is not so tighly controlled by the ISP's as to what goes in in the device.

And inspite of the bogeyman logic that the ISP throw at us - NETWORK SECURITY - I have seen people (in India) using hell of a lot of 3rd party apps and games and software being installed on their phones, and the network just carries on as smooth as it was - no breakdown and no netweork outages and security issues that we in USA are made to believe .

Phones should be free and follow a certain standard radio protocol so as not to interrupt the whole network. Outside of that there should be the freedon to install apps in the user space which does not clash with the network space. Dont see whats wrong with that.

And it is this dictation by the ISP that prevents Nokia from putting a cell radio into the IT, cause otherwise they will be regulated by tghe ISP and the openness will not be there in the first place, that we so cherish of the IT's.

So in that sense Apple has been a game changer.

Also on the UI level, while touchscreens have abounded even before iPhone, iPhone has taken it to a new level and made it mainstream. Its not the cutting edge which matters, its the popularity and mass-appeal that counts in the consumer market. Apple took a existing but less used technology and took it mainstream.

I hardly remember any touchscreen phones which had mass market strength (Motorola Ming ?)

But the downside of Apple is that while (maybe) freeing us from the ISP's dictates, iPhone users are now under Apple's dictates.
Call it jumping from the frying pan into the fire ? :-)