as much as i now despise the apple ethos and product i am glad they are around mobile wise.
I had the first iphone and i do think it was revolutionary, i have no doubt there would not be android, ios, winmo in their present incarnations without it. I even had the first iphone, imported here before it came out, everyone wanted to see it, it was capable of things that i had never seen before on such a device.
however when i moved to android after there was no doubt that i would never want apple again, jail breaking, being restricted, having to use itunes, [ie you must do this and that] drove me round the bend, not to mention the cost.
but it drove competition, so now we have all these OSs and choice, and with android particularly, choice of hardware and price point.
As for market share, at my work place about 7/10 have android with HTC but all different models, 1/10 iphone and 2/10 other older phones. No RIM/win mo at all.
What annoys me is the patent wars, cause thats just bad for consumers, but i understand each company's stance. You want to use the law to maximise your profits, and there have to be patents otherwise their would be no development, but the system does need overhauling, general patents need to be reduced in severity, like the shape of a phone, maybe the first company to patent it should get a percentage of every model sold if its to vague, so said company benefits but cannot stop other companies using a concept that is the ONLY concept. I know this happens with carrier signals etc.
I dont know what the answer is and can see each viewpoint for what it is..
that said i will never have another iOS product due to its restrictions but definitely see the appeal for others, be it they want a simple product, dont want to mess about with setting android up to its fullest or already have the apple software/hardware and want to continue using these
