While I too would love to see 3rd party apps available on an iPhone, this argument(complaint) has become tired and useless.
Why, you might ask?
Well, being the Apple fan that you obviously are, this behavior of controlling the user experience, is what Apple has always stubbornly done. It's this behavior that has relegated Apple to such low world wide market share in operating systems. It is also this behavior that has given them dominance in the digital music player market. This control over user experience has been Apples' game for all of it's existence. This stubbornness is paying off now because, consumers want things that just work. They don't want to have to configure and tinker to accomplish things. The only people that really care about all the things that are usually complained about are geeks like you and me and developers and Apple haters and others that know what the possibilities are.
Yea I hope to see the iPhone opened up, and Apple may do so but not until feel like they've got full control of the user experience.
This should not come as a surprise to any Apple fan that writes an article on an Apple centric site.
7 Reasons Why Keeping the iPhone Locked Down is Stupid and Arrogant