> an iphone without any app developers is almost completely worthless
The iphone has plenty of app developers even if there isn't a single third party app anywhere. Those app developers just work for Apple instead of a third party. I don't think Apple cares about having a thriving third party app ecosystem.
I'm not so sure. Apple's selling point is tight control over the entire stack so that the experience is consistent everywhere on all of their devices. It seems like there is a substantial market segment that wants that and doesn't care what Apple has to do to get it.