Ripped off? Apple won what was effectively a sealed-bid auction: they paid a lot of money to beat Google (and Nokia, which was probably less of a big deal). They paid a lot of money for a real service to beat off real bids from real competitors, and to do so immediately. The fact they didn't realize how low Nokia and Google's initial offers were is down to Nguyen not being stupid enough to tell them.
If anyone got "ripped off" it was the venture capitalists who later threw $41 million at the "Facebook-killer" being developed by one of the few people in the Valley that had barely used Facebook. But again, they were sophisticated specialists who knew how to evaluate risk and do due diligence, so if they were so mesmerised by Bill's confidence in his ability (and his team's track record) they wanted to take a premature punt that size in an already-crowded space it's their own fault.
If anyone got "ripped off" it was the venture capitalists who later threw $41 million at the "Facebook-killer" being developed by one of the few people in the Valley that had barely used Facebook. But again, they were sophisticated specialists who knew how to evaluate risk and do due diligence, so if they were so mesmerised by Bill's confidence in his ability (and his team's track record) they wanted to take a premature punt that size in an already-crowded space it's their own fault.