I think Apple’s goal was to create a platform. They used smart design to make a platform that was expandable and flexible. I think Apple absolutely intended to challenge the Blackberry and that their roadmap shows the way far into the future. I don’t believe they are trying to 100% dominate the corporate IT departments (not yet anyway), but consumer adoption of smartphones has been a huge growth area and Apple wanted to snatch that up from Palm and RIM first, and use that as an entry point to breech corporate customers.

Also, Apple employees have told me first-hand that the company’s attitude is not to rely on consumer feedback to drive/dictate product design. Rather, Apple sees it as their job to help the consumer understand what it is that they really want/need (read: the avg consumer is not a product designer and given the chance will tell you that they want 10,000 inane features; in actuality they really just want to be told what they want/need…ex: an iPod with one button).

Nooge,
Stu(mo)