When did the mobile phone industry lose the plot?

This excellent article from The Register perfectly sums up how many of us feel about the mobile makers. Why did it take about 3 years for Sony Ericsson to replace the excellent T610 with a worthy successor (I love the K610i), and then why did it take 8 months for me to be able to get it on the network I'm already locked into (eventually I had to buy it pre-pay and install my own SIM, though I've had a T-Mobile contract for 8 years). The money quote:

Not everyone agrees the iPhone will be as successful as Jobs hopes, but Apple does seem to make the perfect bogeyman for the mobile phone industry. What could be more scary than an organisation capable of working in total secrecy, with a track record of creating highly desirable products, headed by a man who's beaten cancer and an SEC investigation and comes equipped with a Reality Distortion Field that would make Darth Vader jealous.