In its early stages, every technology is vertically integrated, aka tightly coupled.
If you were to buy a minicomputer or mainframe in the 1970s, or a personal computer in the early-1980s, the same provider would make the hardware, peripherals, OS, applications, etc.
As the technology develops, that changes -- the PC market in the 1990s turned the hardware, peripherals into commodities. Until Apple's resurgence, it looked like the whole market outside of the OS would be commoditized.
With smartphoness in the late-2000s, it was a very similar story: tightly-integrated early phones, gradually maturing into more commoditized hardware, peripherals, and applications, while retaining a premium market segment (iOS) with tight vertical integration.
This pattern is fairly similar across industries, some good reading on the topic:
If you were to buy a minicomputer or mainframe in the 1970s, or a personal computer in the early-1980s, the same provider would make the hardware, peripherals, OS, applications, etc.
As the technology develops, that changes -- the PC market in the 1990s turned the hardware, peripherals into commodities. Until Apple's resurgence, it looked like the whole market outside of the OS would be commoditized.
With smartphoness in the late-2000s, it was a very similar story: tightly-integrated early phones, gradually maturing into more commoditized hardware, peripherals, and applications, while retaining a premium market segment (iOS) with tight vertical integration.
This pattern is fairly similar across industries, some good reading on the topic:
https://hbr.org/2009/12/vertical-integration-can-work/
Clayton Christiansen, "The Innovator's Solution", Chapter 6: "How to Avoid Commoditization"
Simon Wardley and "Wardley maps"; a good intro is here: http://www.slideshare.net/swardley/general-2013