&gt; For instance, picture Microsoft in 2001, after it got sued for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows. Imagine what would have happened if they sold Windows XP with an exclusive application store. Imagine that every program must be approved by Microsoft to run on XP, and they take a 30% cut. Oh, and no interpreter allowed.<p>&gt; They would have been sued into oblivion, lost half their customers, suffered one hell of a bad press. They could have sunk. Yet when Apple did exactly that to their new computer, the iPhone, few objected and customers flocked.<p>This just tells me that execution matters more than the initial idea. There&#x27;s plenty of competition in the mobile space. If users didn&#x27;t want Apple&#x27;s locked-down ecosystem, they wouldn&#x27;t buy iPhones. The vast majority of users don&#x27;t care about side-loading apps or installing another operating system. They are (quite rationally) willing to sacrifice customization and app choices to avoid malware.