I agree, but Apple in itself is practicing a mono-culture by having a complete walled garden. If Apple does something bad, since it has such huge control over this garden, it could be ruinous. I mean, can you imagine what would happen to Apple if it had a Vista-style fiasco? Microsoft still hasn't really recovered from its losses. Apple's a very small percent of the PC market, and Smartphones and Tablets have a way to go before saturation. If someone finds a really nasty exploit for iOS that can't be patched due to hardware constraints-far harder on Android or Windows due to the fact they're on so much hardware, but much easier in a software manner (see: Malware), then I do not see how iOS can be a viable platform too long.
You apparently are not aware that Apple can remotely disable any program that goes out the app store that contains an exploit. Apple can shut down malware in a heartbeat were they to miss something during their vetting process.
The only malware to raise it's head during the history of IOS came from software NOT sold through the app store and installed onto a jailbroke phone.
Android on the other hand is currently besieged with malware due to there being no gatekeeper and no way to stop an infestation.
So, the eco-system for IOS is much safer by design than for the Android even while the breadth of apps available is much bigger.
But the fact Apple's maintaining such tight control over their software while blocking out other people's software-see: Blu-ray, USB 3...shows me they in fact have not learned from their mistakes when it comes to market share, just that they know how to not waste money.
Some of what you wrote doesn't make sense, however you also need to know that Apple has not targeted the whole smart phone market, but the upper portion. That segment is where the money is and Apple owns that segment.
In any broad market a company that identifies its customers within that market and builds products for those chosen customers and then advertises to those customers, it will be far more successful than competitors who try to be dump product onto a market with no idea how it will fill the end user's needs.
On Thursday Motorola will announce their last quarter's financials. It is expected that the Xoom, which had great specs as a tablet hasn't sold as well in three months as the iPad has in one week. Why? for many of the reasons I mentioned above. It's not a bad product, it just wasn't pointed at any customers. Barnes and Nobel is doing much better with their $299 Nook because they are targeting a market they have tightly identified.
I didn't respond to the rest of your post as it was a mish-mash of statements that barely related to each other.
