That's what the whole appeal of the iPhone is, your average Joe/Jane just wants a phone that is simple to use and the iPhone is the first smartphone that an average person could use without a big learning curve. There's nothing wrong with that and if Apple didn't do it, someone else would. Smartphones years ago pretty much had Windows Mobile on them (to me a smartphone should have all the radios built in to them, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and of course GPRS) My first smartphone had WinMo 2003 on it and had everything but built in GPS which I added via a bluetooth receiver. It was amazing all the things you could do with this phone and it did have a big learning curve. The internet was great with WiFi and being able to download topographical maps to it and do geocaching with the GPS was something that Apple was only dreaming of at the time. I also had TomTom software on there for turn by turn directions. I was also able to upgrade the software on it to WinMO 5, and then 6, this phone lasted a long time and got a lot of use.
Now my "new" phone has everything built in and I still use WinMo on it but I am also able to try Android on it which I have done and I like it. There are tons of apps that are out there, they just are not in one place. I can do pretty much anything with this phone. Having all this flexibility with a phone is the way that I think all phones should be, especially someone like me who does not buy subsidized phones. I can change the software on it, not only should this be allowed, it should be encouraged by the handset makers, but the pressures of the cell phone companies making up excuses does not allow this. If I am able to switch between using Android and WinMo on my phone and I have no doubt that I'll be putting Win Phone 7 on it in the near future, then all phones (except Apple) should let people do this. It should be no different for my phone as it is for my computers at home with my ISP, I can change hardware, software, service providers whenever I want, but the cell companies control the hardware which should not be allowed anymore.
Android is like Linux on the PC, if I choose to use it on my computers, I can do so whenever I want. There is a learning curve with it, but it's not that bad. It's just that everyone is used to Windows. Most people never used a smartphone before, so Android (based on Linux) is now becoming a standard for mobile phones and Microsoft is falling way behind in the mobile world.
So if you truly want to know the power that a smartphone has, try one that is not locked to a provider and find one that also works with WinMo and Android and let's you change whatever you want on it, then you will know what a smartphone is supposed to be like. If you're happy with just doing what your phone software and network provider allow you to do, so be it, but there's a whole bunch you are missing.
Cheers.
