It's not the installed volume leader as a platform yet. It's already the leader in many markets based on quarterly unit sales however. And it's already close to the 800lbs Gorilla as a viable development platform for third-parties.

I think the ramp is going to easily surpass iTunes initial growth rate. Just wait until the really sweet applications in development now are released.

BTW, I don't have an iPhone. I do have an iPod Touch which I bought for development and testing purposes though. It's used heavily as a remote control for SqueezeBox as well.

So many people like to predict Apple's failure in any given market that it's become the default thing to do - moreso than any praise they get in the media. I can't believe how many "professionals" (analysts, journalists and the like) even fail to mention that the iPhone has done what it's done in only its second minor hardware revision and scarcely over 6 global availability. Application development and the online store are in their absolute infancy. There's a ton of garbage software released for it. The crap:quality ratio isn't likely to change for the better either. But the volume of releases will continue to increase. It's going to be important and valuable to consult trusted resources to find the best of what the platform has to offer. Sort of reminds me of Windows software availability.