[microtonal]

And the car analogy still does not fly. A Bentley will work fine on the same roads a Volkswagen does. However, an iPhone will not run, say, Android apps. If Apple's marketshare drops under a certain percentage, it becomes less and less interesting to treat it as a first-class citizen.

[GFischer]

Network effects are very important, however, for now Apple users outspend Android users by a very significant margin, so they can get by with a relatively low market share.

As long as the spending trend continues, developers will continue delivering products for the platform.

[r00fus]

Your analogy doesn't hold. The "roads" are carrier networks, and the iPhone plays well in most of those (in fact, latest models have impressive band coverage for data).

Not even sure how Apps fit into the car analogy, but they sure as hell aren't even fuel, maybe accessories or tires?

You're right - a car analogy just don't fly.