So I think the word count on my comment exceeds your original post… but I kinda disagree with some of what you said. (But I think that you're overall right)

I wouldn't say that Apple is becoming more Microsoft-like. They're returning to their core failures that led to the “Near Death Experience” Mr. Jobs references in his open letter. Apple continued down a path pursuing closed-source black-box solutions that were admittedly better looking and maintained a better quality assurance process (certainly from the software side) than their main workstation competition. Apple's desire for complete single-source integration of computing was nearly its undoing: Apple sold printers, digital cameras, productivity software, ran a re-branded ISP, scanners, servers, and a litany of other elements of computing hardware, software, and services. By and large, these were things you could get from companies other than Apple (including briefly, workstations themselves via the brief clone period). However, Apple almost always laid down a minor barrier to the user for their heretical infidelity to the great Apple. Add up the proprietary nature of your options as an Apple user up through 1998, and it becomes obvious that Apple was using these barriers to increase unit sales of its accessories and strengthen its role as the sole provider for its users’ computing needs.
What saved Apple from itself was a push for open standards, both hardware and software. Obviously NeXTSTEP evolving into MacOS X with open-sourced underpinnings was the huge push on the software side. Less obviously, and perhaps more pertinent to the gradual obsolescence of Adobe's Flash format is the original iMac's hardware. Steve Jobs made a stand that legacy ports would be no more. Specialized serial devices simply didn't make sense, especially if Apple's hardware was ever to seriously integrate into the computing ecosystem dominated by Windows computers. More notably, the iMac was the first of the serious blows against the 3.5″ diskette. Apple pushed for the obsolescence of the floppy. If users wanted to continue to use the floppy disk, they could pick up a USB connected floppy disk reader, but there was, again, a barrier to going against Apple. Except this time the beneficiary wasn’t Apple’s obsession with itself being the center of the computing universe. This time, it was about fostering the development of new technologies for the transfer of information.
Not too far down the road, Apple again pushed technological development forward. NeXTSTEP became MacOS X and thoroughly modernized the Macintosh platform. It was nice, but it wasn’t the huge step forward that I’m alluding to. Apple helped to foster a new kind of understanding for the interaction of open-source software and a public corporation’s intellectual property. By opening up the underpinnings of Mac OS X, Apple created a new understanding of how to encourage safe, well developed community software and still make money doing so. On top of all of this, throughout the OS X and subsequent Intel transitions, Apple provided easy-to-use bridges to wean us off our legacy applications.
Now enter the iPhone. How success changes people! We’re using a proprietary connector (though its functionality has been revealed by Apple) with no expandable memory, no replaceable battery, and (here in the US) no options with regard to service providers. Software application vendors are restricted in their development options by only allowing “approved” applications to be distributable. Apple did many things right—their sandboxing model is a step in the right direction to encourage responsible and secure computing. However, benevolent protections are outweighed by the seemingly nefarious content control Apple wields over App developers. Jordan, you’re spot on when you say that Apple isn’t letting consumers control their own devices. Apple once encouraged us to “Think Different.” We now know that certain restrictions apply: no thinking different(ly) about boobs, hooking up, mockery of public figures, or about giving people legacy options. And you’re sure as hell not going to think about it on a competitor’s legacy platform… even if a bridge exists to make life easier.
I certainly hope that the benevolent, innovative Apple of early OS X will come back. I really hope that wasn’t just a brief period of a corporate culture acting out of character. But the way I see it, Apple is running back towards its old life as a micromanager stifling consumer choices and encouraging the Apple-centric theory of the universe.

I agree that Apple has traditionally been a leader in eliminating antiquated technologies and driving the market to go in that direction, and I wish that were the case here. Although Flash has been with us a long time, it is not quite at the cutting point. When Apple eliminated floppy drives, users were already barely *using* them and had largely moved on to the replacement medium (CD-R). The opposite is true with Flash. A likely predecessor has its initial specs, but Flash is still in heavy use and HTML5 is in its infancy.

You have a great point with regards to connectors. Though the “universal connector” for i___ devices is a bit more clearly explained now, Apple still holds a tight grip on one other proprietary connector: Magsafe. They won't even let anyone license it.

It seems like we are largely in agreement, in any case