Progress in unlocking the iPhone is proceeding faster than I had hoped, with immediate benefits to users.

There is now an easy unlock tool you can run on your Mac to enable third party software to be installed, such as Doom, a voice recorder, and a NES Emulator. 

Hackers in Europe have also discovered how to unlock the iPhone to work with any carrier.

The speed of development suggests that Apple put fairly little effort into truly locking down the platform.  (Compare with, say, Microsoft and the XBox, which was also cracked in slightly longer time.)

Rather than fighting this trend (in a Sysephean, RIAAish struggle), Apple would do well to open the platform just a bit in a safe fashion. 

It occurs to me that Apple should partner with Adobe to create an iPhone-optimized version of Flash.  Flash and the iPhone would be an excellent match, especially with multi-touch support.  (Pinch events could be mapped into mouse wheel events, perhaps)

Flash has a secure sandbox model, and its scalable vector graphics and visual effects are well suited to a device like the iPhone and would go beyond what could be accomplished in AJAX browser apps.