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I don’t think you can really call iPhones or iPads and especially not iPods computers. They are all mobile devices and like all things you have to make certain tradeoffs for the package.

My Dell Axim X50V would like to disagree. I installed several free applications onto it that came from individual, unaffiliated developers. This device is, IMO, smaller and lighter than the iPhone. Still, no tradeoffs required. And it does multitasking too :-)

To me, this is basically a huge quality control thing. If someone’s iPhone or iPad starts having horrible battery life, or becomes unstable Apple will be blamed.

That is just as possible as Ford being sued by a race car driver because his fuel efficiency is not on par with what was on the window sticker :-)

In terms of "being unstable", the last OS that allowed wayward apps to kill it was Windows 95. Fifteen years passed since then; why can't we expect Apple's OS to be in firm control of the applications, just like every other modern OS does? Apple's way is the DOS way.

Most people are willing to make the tradeoff

I seldom pay attention to popular opinion, it is often wrong. It's too easy to coax the public into believing whatever you want them to believe. I think no examples are needed in this forum :-)

FWIW, MS is going to a very similar model to Apple for WinMo 7.

It's because they are stealing Apple's business model :-) MS thinks there is a market for locked-down devices. There is a market for anything, but what matters is the size of that market. Apple is already at the brink of saturating the market with iPhones (who wanted them already got them) and I don't know how many new phones of this type can be sold. Anyway, if MS wants to play this game they are welcome, but they are late and the game is almost over. I don't even understand why an independent developer would want to target WinMo 7 phones at all, unless there is plenty of WinMo 7 equipment out there. So it's up to phone manufacturers to decide how this ends.

That is just as possible as Ford being sued by a race car driver because his fuel efficiency is not on par with what was on the window sticker :-)

So every computer user is a power user? Not a good comparison to the average user. I'm tempted to take a poll of my friends who are majority iPhone users and see how many can even tell me what Flash is much less the pros and cons of having it on the iPhone. I would be shocked to get a majority. However, if it were allowed and the battery life gets shot, who would be blamed, you think it would be Adobe?

If you haven't had a freeze and had to restart a smartphone, you are one lucky individual.

I seldom pay attention to popular opinion, it is often wrong. It's too easy to coax the public into believing whatever you want them to believe.

You don't have to, but as a business trying to make money it would be smart for Apple to heed public opinion. Having the public view their product as high quality is in their best interest.

The market for iPhones isn't saturated at this point. They still are only on one carrier in the US. Look through iPhone threads and start counting how many people say they are getting one the day it is on Verizon. Not to mention the desire to upgrade to new versions. As soon as the subsidy comes back around I'm sure a lot of people will be ready to upgrade. And I would again contest the knowledge of the average iPhone or even mobile phone user on how knowledgeable they are about how locked down the iPhone is. Beyond being exclusive to AT&T I doubt many could tell you much.

It's because they are stealing Apple's business model :-) MS thinks there is a market for locked-down devices. There is a market for anything, but what matters is the size of that market. Apple is already at the brink of saturating the market with iPhones (who wanted them already got them)

Can't say I disagree with much of what you say beyond this point. Watch the iPhone market become officially unsaturated this summer when the new iPhone is released. Things like a rumored (certain IMO) high resolution screen, better reception, bigger battery and better camera will have the Apple faithful camping out for a midnight release. Add to it that its the latest greatest Apple product and you won't be able to navigate the streets within a mile of an Apple store in some California cities...

In terms of "being unstable", the last OS that allowed wayward apps to kill it was Windows 95. Fifteen years passed since then; why can't we expect Apple's OS to be in firm control of the applications, just like every other modern OS does? Apple's way is the DOS way.

The implication that Apple's OS is NOT in firm control of it's applications is BS and you know it... Don't try to rewrite history, Graysard! Windows 98, ME, XP and even XP were still unstable and wayward Apps could regularly kill the entire OS in those iterations of Windows. Vista was NEVER really ready for prime time. It wasn't until Service Pack2 of XP, in August of 2004, that Windows started to become stable enough to not regularly crash the OS. OS X has been far more stable since the release of OS X in 2001... and has been far more OS crash resistant than Windows. The last time I experienced an OS crash of OS X was in OS X.1... in 2002.