If offering user choice is a bad idea, why is Android doing so well? I believe they're out-gunning apple in market-share now, and there are tons of Android phones to choose between.
Android isn't a triumph of user choice. Android is a bunch of carriers and manufacturers choosing to use something free instead of licensing or developing software for themselves.
Nerds choose Android. The vast majority of consumers choose their carrier, then take whatever the cheap phone is.
"What do you think of the iPhone?"
then
"What do you think of the Android ecosystem?"
"What do you think about Google?"
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/06/browser-is-search-e...
Much like browsers and search engines, most people don't even know what an operating system is. How Google fits into the picture is extremely murky from that worldview.