After linking to it earlier today, I re-read Steve Jobs’s remarks from his last appearance on a quarterly analyst call. It’s a banger of a good read:

You know, even if Google were right, and the real issue is
“closed” versus “open,” it is worthwhile to remember that open
systems don’t always win. Take Microsoft’s “Plays For Sure” music
strategy, which used the PC model — which Android uses as well — of separating the software components from the hardware
components. Even Microsoft finally abandoned this “open” strategy
in favor of copying Apple’s integrated approach with their Zune
player, unfortunately leaving their OEMs empty-handed in the
process. Google flirted with this integrated approach with their
Nexus One phone.

In reality, we think the open versus closed argument is just a
smokescreen to try and hide the real issue, which is, “What’s best
for the customer — fragmented versus integrated?” We think
Android is very, very fragmented, and becoming more fragmented by
the day. And as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model
so that the user isn’t forced to be the systems integrator. We see
tremendous value at having Apple, rather than our users, be the
systems integrator. We think this a huge strength of our approach
compared to Google’s: when selling the users who want their
devices to just work, we believe that integrated will trump
fragmented every time.

Prescient.