All the vertical integration Apple has been able to muster hasn't prevented more open competition from growing in the smartphone market, so your point continues to remain moot.
Again, to make your case, you must argue that Apple products are categorically different from any other device available on market and that they are preventing new entrants from competing with it, which is so blatantly not the case here.
Addendum after edit time passed: the final and primary criticism I'm making about this argument is this: if you selectively narrow your view to the Apple ecosystem and ignore all external entities, you would easily come to the conclusions you are coming to. I believe that is an artificial and distorting narrowing of the scope that must be considered in this argument.
