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About a hundred years ago you could've asked the same questions of the car industry.

I'm not a fan of RIM, but the iPhone might just be today's Ford Model T.

Your perspective is refreshing, however it's worth noting that the automotive market doesn't have the same network effects as mobile computing. All cars take the same gasoline and oil for the most part.

All mobile devices use TCP/IP and have browsers. But they also all have specific add-ons: cases, plugs, add-on mics, tie-ins with devices - medical, etc. Just like all cars have a lot of after-market parts (spoilers, rims, etc) that all only fit specific car/models.

Kinda important to mention apps when talking about smartphones.

Sure, you can buy Angry Birds (or whatever) again for $0.99 if you switch platforms, but will you buy all of your apps again? And what if you really like an app that's only on one platform?

I am of the belief, that the latter is what we will prevent migration to a new platform but not the former.

Perhaps power users would rather not repurchase dozens of paids of apps; but for the average user, the amount of money invested into apps would probably be on par with the amount of money invested into a case for said phone.

So that makes a blackberry walking without shoes?

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