I have so many things to say i don't know where to begin.

the browser on the iphone is not a real browser like the one on the n900, which can display ANY webpage that was designed for a PC. (like google maps, and street view). it also doesn't have Flash which many websites use. so it doesn't really display normal internet content.

but the thing that disturbs me the most is that apple won't let you install whatever software you want on the device you bought (so it doesn't really belong to you). you paid for it, you shouldn't have to jailbreak it in order to install applications.

iphone have many applications, that's true, but a great deal of these are applications what don't really do anything. (many of them probably took the developer a week of work).

consider there's a company who wants to improve your like by making an application that will help you do things. buy begging the development of the application they are taking a huge risk, maybe apple will reject the application (they can't really know that in advance since apple don't follow or publish any guidelines).
counting only on the distribution channels of cydia is not the same, since many of their potential customers will not jailbreak their phones (ordinary consumers who aren't so technical).

so that poses a limitation on the amount of third party applications available for iphone (ones that actually took some development effort).

also since apple charge money for publishing something on the app store, free / open-source software teams and people working on their own free time to provide consumers with great software, will not allocate the 'budget' to publish the software.

I urge you to read an article i wrote carrying this subject:
Smart-phone Operating Systems and how they affect the availability of third party applications, thus making devices less useful for consumers.
http://giantmitzy.com/articles/smart...g_systems.html

if you have any thoughts on the matter (application framework), you can post them here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=46227