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.
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. Wouldn’t matter that the true culprit is some strange app, it is Apple that is blamed. Most people are willing to make the tradeoff to have a well functioning phone with the allowed apps over being able to go out and find more apps elsewhere. For those who want that, they have a choice in Android.
FWIW, MS is going to a very similar model to Apple for WinMo 7. One app store to get apps from, strict hardware requirements etc. And they only allow you to run approved software on their XBox.
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.