Brilliant summary; I never could have said it better myself.

Google’s philosophy on how to grow their market share has allowed Android to catch up to iPhone and actually surpass them in sales in the last quarter of this year. This has taken only two years to accomplish. The first iPhone was released in June of 2007 if I remember correctly. The first Android phones came out in September of 2008. Apple had over a full year’s head start on Google and could have cleaned everyone’s clock except for, in my opinion, their stupid decision to give exclusivity to AT&T as the sole carrier of the iPhone and keep that contract for two more years even in the face of Android’s handset and carrier diversity. Android may never have done so well if Apple hadn’t let them in the door. The same might be said of RIM, Nokia and Microsoft; that if they hadn’t sat on their laurels for so long, Apple would not have stomped on them for the last 3 years.

Apple’s decision to keep the iPhone on one carrier and not let anyone else produce their phones hasn’t necessarily been the best long-term plan for crushing the competition, so I wouldn’t tout that as a great accomplishment if I were you. What it has done for Apple is give them a very tight, cohesive and consistent customer experience and software ecosystem that is in keeping with their overall design philosophy and has grown them a mostly loyal and eager fan-base for the consumption of their products which, in turn, has led to a great boost in Apple’s profits in the last 3 years which is very good for Apple.