I know it's funny and all, but in all seriousness, perhaps we underestimate just how damaging the rampant, often out of control spam on "the open web" is to the consumer experience. Keeping Apple products clear of that sort of stuff has been a big win for them so far.

Unfortunately for Apple they'll have to deal with this more and more as they grow beyond simply being a premium niche provider to mainstream. It's easy to keep a walled-garden clean and orderly but once you grow beyond that and need to connect people's outside "messy" lives with your product, it gets much tougher (see Microsoft)

I'm waiting for the fateful day when the virus makers see Apple OS' as a true target. Apple and Apple users have been living in a walled-garden and they don't know the difference between a grass snake, the game Snake and a cobra, because they're protected from the dangers of the open web by being a minority.

The bigger problem is that Apples exceedingly proprietary nature will likely lock-out any of the established or establishing anti-virus/trojan/malware/spyware companies from stepping in quickly when the flood occurs.

Phishing is cross-platform.

Pretty sure they're "mainstream". :)

According to Alexa, apple.com is in the top 50 sites on the internet (#42 - coincidence Hitchhiker fans?) and top 30 (#27) for the U.S.

So yes, I agree they are "mainstream" and welcoming them to the web probably isn't necessary...

I'm not sure how open it is when they have my credit card. I get the feeling a ban on iTunes might not be a happy thing.