There's some revisionist history. When the iPhone was released, mobile apps were supposed to be HTML5 webapps. Developers cried for local apps. Apple responded to demand.
The truth is likely somewhere in between. Apple probably anticipated the demand for native apps. But they weren't ready, business-wise if not technically, to build the SDK and App Store in 2007, so they held off on it for a year.
Sometimes it's useful to pretend that what you were going to do all along was merely a concession to outside demand.
Steve Jobs said in the intro of the phone that the apps were "just the internet" or some such. Personally, when I heard that I just ignored the iPhone.
The steve jobs bio documents how he was deadset against native apps, even after the iphone was released. Even apple has to listen to its customers / developers every now and then. The myth that apple's moves are all part of a big plan is just that.
