As an iPhone developer and an OS X developer I can say that it doesn't compare to the capabilities of a real desktop.
The iPhone has serious constraints in CPU, memory and UI interaction that really encourage simple single purpose applications. Try to do anything more complex and things fall over fast.
Not to mention the absurd app store and it's get in to the top 25 of downloads or die stupidity.
And, oh, by the way, don’t rant about not having
background processes (or any other feature, for that
matter); I really don’t think that the lack of support
for them will hinder the development of this platform.
Is there no way of looking at my previous purchases/downloads and recommending apps for me? They do it for music, why not iPhone apps?
There's no recommendation engine currently.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I found it pretty interesting that the iphone was actually a superior overall experience for her.
I'm also happy to see consumers are starting to get irritated with the volume-driven top charts that were copy 'n pasted from the music store. $.99 Music Downloads != Applications. Hopefully Apple will listen and make adjustments soon, because for the past 6+ months they've ignored developer complaints in this regard. It's taken over 6 months to make very minor adjustments to the rating system.
... and the choice is between picking up my iPhone, or moving a metre to the desk -- I'll just grab my iPhone.
Not to disagree with your point more generally, but I think the iPhone is operating in a sweet spot -- i.e. not the be-all-end-all, but good enough for a lot of daily tasks.