[biafra]

Since in your eyes the iPhone is the _first_ smart phone that qualifies for "any levels of success" it is of course the most open.

I think several smart phones were successful (at least in europe) and had a more open development environment. You could install unapproved apps (up to S60 2nd ed. After that some APIs were restricted for unsigned apps. But even then you could buy those certificates). There was no company I know of that disallowed satire or certain programming languages or interpreters on their phones.

Those phones were:

Sony Ericsson P800 (you could even run javac on it in) and its successors P900/P910

Several Nokia S60 phones before 3rd ed.

With limited APIs S60 3rd ed. like the Nokia E90 (my last phone before the arrival of Android phones)