1st:
“Before the iPhone, getting your app on a phone meant doing complicated and expensive business development deals with wireless carriers”

- Not true.. you were free to develop a Java based application for a looooong time across the globe and people could install them without problems. Sure, there were issues with problematic applications but unfortunately such is the nature of choice. As soon as the market is free you will have those with malicious intent but at the end of the day we have the freedom. This is what counts.

To talk about “closed” better than “open” is to discuss dictatorship vs democracy. Same thing. I can tell you that a lot of people love living in dictatorship because everything is provided from them, they don't have to think and things just work. Unfortunately it comes with one big sacrifice, if you want something else or freedom or a say in anything you don't have it.

2nd:
At the other end of the spectrum: If the iPhone OS were completely open, would we really have better apps? What apps are we missing today besides viruses?

- Look no further than Cydia and unlocked iPhones. Applications developed for the “black” market for iPhone provides much better and free applications by design. The reason is that people don't want to pay $99 to Apple to develop for the platform plus be tossed around by Apple with the approval process and always be in fear that if you come up with something great and goes against Apple's interest your app will be prevented. Look at Google Voice just as one simple example. Closed, stifles growth and innovation and even though I do like some products by Apple I don't want them telling me how I should use hardware I paid and be at the mercy of Mr. Jobs and what he thinks is good.

Google's Android platform will steamroll over Apple in the next couple of years. The reason? It's free, it's open and allows unhindered improvements and evolution. It's not interest based but user based. I can take Android and put it on my prototype of machine tomorrow and build upon it a unique interface that will blow minds and offer possibly a better experience than iPhone OS or anything out there (hypothetical). That's the beauty of open. Innovation. Sure it comes with a price that there might be those who have malicious intent but such is price of freedom. To say that it's ok to be controlled for the sake of not worrying about viruses or malware is to say “it's ok to live in a dictatorship because nobody can do something harmful to you but the dictator”.

I strongly disagree that closed is smart. Actually, the better question is, smart for who? Certainly for Apple it is because it makes them unlimited amounts of money as they tie you to their platform and don't let go. So tomorrow when you buy a book or a movie or some future digital asset Apple sells you will only be tied to their devices. That's not something I consider smart or good for a consumer.

Now let's look at an open platform. Buying non-DRM stuff, open source and overall collecting assets for your mobile or any type of device will allow you the freedom to transfer it to something better, more intelligent or more stylish down the road, which is again a choice. I may like iPad for example (i don't but let's say I do) and i buy a bunch of stuff from their store, tomorrow I'll want some new tablets that are better spec-ed, better technology and overall more advanced and I would want to use what I bought on the new device. With Apple this most likely won't be the case. The only reason they liberated music from DRM was because they started getting endanger by other stores like Amazon because they sold non-DRM stuff but in essence as long as the platform is closed to Apple you will always be at their mercy and choice, not your own.

…I think a lot of folks are not fully appreciating what apps really are and why they're changing the game when it comes to accessing internet-based services.

Android & iPhone are different beasts and most of us will support both to get at slightly different audiences. But there are a couple of reasons developers need to calm down about the approval process and quit bitching:

1) like you say, as someone who launched mobile product pre-iPhone (and i'll add took it to market leadership position) it was a nightmare… really, really hard, and so open to random glitches that success one time round was almost certainly not replicable with a second application/service

2) you get paid

It's number 2) that is really underappreciated. The system for simple payments, with a not-egregious cut being taken by apple is amazingly powerful. It got people paying for content, services and applications. In fact some of our users are knowingly paying for content they can get free online!

If you want to get paid, Apple is still the bigger priority when it comes to development resources.