Apple succeeded because (1) they practically created new markets and had no competition initially, (2) people treat these devices as appliances but only because they don't realize what these devices are able to do and (3) initially iOS was not a platform, so developers took it as a gift when it happened.
In the meantime however Android came and quickly surged in popularity. On most Android devices you can get root privileges really easy, by installing an app or something similar. It allows third-party sources for apps, it allows apps in Google Play that are banned in iTunes (e.g. call and sms blockers, battery savers), apps that work without avoiding your warranty, it doesn't need permissions from the careers to do tethering, it gives you access to the APN settings and Firefox is allowed, not to mention that it can be forked, being more open than Windows ever was.
The number one complaint I hear from people that own iPads is that iPads are more limited than PCs. And take for instance calls and sms blockers ... people with iPhones don't bitch about the lack of such functionality because they don't realize it is possible. I also remember fondly the day Apple banned Google Voice because it duplicated existing functionality.
People like to claim that Android is more popular because of the support it gets from careers. That's only half the story. The other half is that Android phones are more capable, simply because iOS is defective by design.
As always, the market will decide the future of computing. But Android versus iOS is like the PC versus Gaming Consoles. And if you remember, PCs won for gaming by a wide margin, pushing consoles like the Playstations into forever small niches.
You should also not underestimate the people's need for piracy. They don't need to pirate stuff on their iPads, because their iPads are treated as dumb devices. But take that capability away from their PCs and you'll see real voting with wallets. After all, the Internet was built for pirating porn ;-)
Obviously OS level DRM like iOS makes it harder for people but people still seem very keen on doing it and the incentive to do so isn't going away. Piracy, just like Shrinkage [2] is a fact of doing business.
[1] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jail... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinkage_(accounting)
Jailbreaking tablets is not legal.
Providing or distributing software intended to help you jailbreak is also illegal, even though jailbreaking may be legal.
See the EFF on this (and donate some money to them!): https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/11/2012-dmca-rulemaking-w...
Nope, it's Apple that got there first with iOS.
I think the thesis on how the darknet would defeat DRM was correct... but only assuming OS's and hardware that actually gave owners control of what software they ran on the devices they own.
In a world where you void your warranty and possibly make it impossible to upgrade your OS (_and_ possibly break the law in the US!), by 'jailbreaking' your device so that you can install software on it without that software having been given a stamp of approval by the device vendor... I'm not so sure. And I suspect DRM was the real motivation for setting up the ecology this way on iOS -- where Apple managed to succeed, both technologically and in the court of public opinion, where Microsoft had previously failed, in doing exactly what people were scared Microsoft was doing -- reducing users' freedom to run the software of their choice.
And that's what looks like the future of consumer computing now, no? The idea that a device owner should have the right to install whatever software they want on their device... is going to seem a quaint relic of a bygone age in 10 years, and not just for 'mobile'.