Could Apple’s iPhone fall to the same fate as Apple’s Macintosh?

In Newsweek, Daniel Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) poses that question in his article Back to the Future.  He notes that in 1984, Apple sprinted far ahead of the IBM PC makers with the Mac and its fantastic graphical user interface or GUI (you know, that thing that we’re all using right now to “point and click” with a mouse…)  It took Microsoft 6 years to come out with Windows 3.0, the first operating system that was comparable with the Mac’s. 

But what happened?  Microsoft eventually owned 90 percent of the market and Apple is probably closer to 5 percent now.  Lyons wonders whether Apple’s stance with the iPhone is like deja vu all over again…

Google has come out with their Android operating system for mobile phones that’s more open to development (think Windows 3.0…) and phone makers are starting to come out with comparable packages using the new system (think the new Droid phone from Motorola, working with the Verizon network…).   Debates are raging about iPhone vs. Droid.  There’s even evidence that strong key developers refuse to write for the iPhone, because of Apple’s burdensome app approval policies…

I like my iPhone – I mean really like it…  But then again, I had a Mac in the early 90’s (in fact, two, and I really liked them then, too…), only to eventually have every computer in our house be a PC…   Maybe Lyons is on to something…