Because iPhones have the App Store, and other phones don't (or the ones they do have aren't anywhere near as good), the iPhone is *clearly* superior to other comparable phones for most people (specialised needs excepted).
And that's *before* you add in iTunes and iBooks. So yes, thanks to its vastly superior software, the iPhone is far and away the technologically superior phone.
That doesn't mean its perfect for everyone, but if we're judging by what it can do, there's not another phone on the market that even begins to touch it. Maybe some of the better Android models will catch up in a few years.
Glad you added that last part, because after having owned my iPhone for the past year and a half, I have enough experience with it to say you're wrong. You can't just go around stating opinions as being fact like that. It's not "clearly superior"... The App store its self works very well, granted. But the experience on the whole also depends on the apps therein.
You can find the same amount of truly useful apps in the Android market as you can on the over exaggeratedly populated App store. I say over exaggerated because I don't count hundreds of fart apps as anything other than redundant and useless.
Same goes for any other redundant app. Nice to have choices for sure, but let's take IM apps for example. How many are there in the app store ? I personally have Nimbuzz, eBuddy, Skype, Fring, WhatsApp and PingChat! And there are tons more out there. How about just one that works with no limitations, and is stable. Like an official iChat app. Just sayin'.
My point is that you can find exactly the same type of really useful apps in the Android Market as you can in the App Store. As for iTunes ? Yuuuck ? Sorry, I'm not a fan of iTunes in general or the way it works. I like Songbird, and I like hardware that doesn't have to be tied to one platform or one single piece of software like the iPod and iPhone have to. I like being able to take a device and plugging it in and having it be recognized regardless of its platform.
I do realize I'm in the absolute tiny minority here on this forum where that is concerned, but what you're saying is just not accurate for everybody. Perhaps a majority of the people HERE... but not everywhere. I would just never presume to speak for everybody like that. Mine is a differing opinion, that is all, and think you should have taken the same approach with that.
Doug