Apple iPhone has no keyboard, so no localisation, and that'd make distribution using same hardware easier. I don't know how good their OSK is for non-Latin fonts though. From what I understood, capacitive screen is a disadvantage to resistive in Asia where users like to use handwriting recognition with a stylus to draw their letters/symbols.

The Apple iPhone is also relatively very expensive for countries with lower GBP than Western Europe and United States. What you get then is that: 1) people don't know the thing 2) its a status symbol 3) its a target for stealing even e.g. beating someone up 4) hence it isn't popular, just like a Porsche isn't (statement without any judgement on quality whatsoever).

It is also a very American product, and some populations in developing countries don't like that, or they don't like the control an American corporation like Apple has over App Store including its killswitch. Personally, I'm disgusted by the fact there is a big business for violence in App Store, while none for erotic. They force their American moral value upon my throat, and this case I'm not particularly fond of it. It makes me feel Apple does not respect my culture, my nationality, my groundwork of being.

This brings me back to WWW. The web is completely open, and doesn't have such censorship. One can filter, but 1) not by default 2) by choice (or _local_ corporate policy). Much better than the over authoritarian way of the App Store. The applications get denied because they'd use too much data over 3G, while local telco is fine with said application. Again, left hand (American AT&T thinking Apple) doesn't know what right arm (Dutch T-Mobile thinking Apple) is doing. Besides, the application fully worked on e.g. Symbian for years! Btw, the cloud might cloud the completely open structure of web.

Apple doesn't stand competition on their products either, claiming it duplicates functions. No interpreters or emulators are allowed either. No Java, no flash. In an ideal world you'd be able to select an alternative for MobileMe. Forget that in Apple's iPhoneOS world. You'd be able to use something like a Gecko-based browser, extensions for browser like an AdBlock or NoScript, or Google Voice. You'd be able to add your own Bluetooth profiles like you can with Maemo 5. No, instead, iPod touch 2nd gen. had a Bluetooth chip all along, it was just disabled. Then they enabled it in iPhoneOS 3, but guess what, only AD2P profile is enabled! It is unnecessarily difficult to get Bluetooth DUN working on iPod touch while hardware-wise it'd be easily possible. Again, Apple's control.

That number also includes iPod touch. FWIW, I've installed more than 40 applications on my iPod touch. But you sometimes have to download an update to application. Plus your iTunes downloads them seperate even if your iTunes Mobile already has it (one way sync). Is that counted as a download from the App Store? In marketing statements they probably are.

I can confirm this.

Although Japan has, yet iPhone not popular there. But the camera on the iPhone 3G was crap, and supported not video. The iPhone 3GS is doing a bit better though.

Many developing countries also lack a nation-wide 3G network, whereas something like WiMAX might be an option instead. Or city-wide WiFi. There is no need for 24/7 connectivity, or it is too expensive.

Reason 1: the Apple iPhone does something right (some of these things competitors can learn from). Reason 2: classic top-down marketing. Reason 3: buyers regret cq. groupie (due to own purchase). Reason 4: American product (hate Finland ). Reason 5: introduces mechanisms of control unheard of on PC, and Mac, which journalists being part of classic media might like to get accepted. Apple already pulled this on iTunes with audio and video, and I'm sure they'd love that control on Macs too. Some Mac users do _not_ like this aspect of iPhone, and will for this reason never get one.

One thing I dislike about iPhone hype is websites start to optimize for it while leaving other devices out in the cold. An iPhone user might say: "haha, buy an iPhone then!" That is not the point. The web is based on open standards and is there for everyone who supports these, and if your website checks for a client running iPhoneOS + MobileSafari then you break the web. Websites will, instead of public APIs, be parsed by proprietary applications, and applications are simply not portable to anything but iPhoneOS. Websites publish parsers for their website, 'for iPhone', while I don't have or want such yet its huge advertised. If they just made APIs public somewhere allowing anyone to develop such application, and allow me to ignore such ad, I'd be a happy fellow surfer.

Then you have the rumor machine, which catches fire the whole time, while nothing of substance is known or said.

Anyway, this article is not so much about telcos or their control over the market, its rather about putting the success of Apple iPhone in a more informative and less hyped_by_marketing_and_zealots context.

There are many reasons I am interested in iPhoneOS though. Some things are done very well.