"Only recently did iTunes remove DRM from their songs"
A timeline:
iTunes store opens: April 26 2003
Steve Jobs DRM letter: Feb 6 2007 (4 years ago)
EMI content available DRM free: May 29 2007
80% of iTunes music DRM free: Jan 6th 2009
All US iTunes music DRM free: April 7th 2009
So I think you are stretching the meaning of "only recently", especially when considered in terms of the pace of technology development (as opposed to, say, geological time.)
You couldn't even buy an iPhone when they started removing it. The period over which they were exclusively selling DRM content is actually shorter than the period since they stopped.
(Update: that last part is not quite right - I was counting from the DRM letter date, not the EMI date. But it's close.)
When they publicly announced their intention to move to DRM-free approximately half the lifetime of the service ago, and have since succeeded in driving that plan to fruition, it's hard for me to find much to fault. They couldn't have gotten the service off the ground without DRM and the decision to push for non-DRM was a surprise to most. How could they have done "better"?
A timeline:
iTunes store opens: April 26 2003
Steve Jobs DRM letter: Feb 6 2007 (4 years ago)
EMI content available DRM free: May 29 2007
80% of iTunes music DRM free: Jan 6th 2009
All US iTunes music DRM free: April 7th 2009
So I think you are stretching the meaning of "only recently", especially when considered in terms of the pace of technology development (as opposed to, say, geological time.)
You couldn't even buy an iPhone when they started removing it. The period over which they were exclusively selling DRM content is actually shorter than the period since they stopped.
(Update: that last part is not quite right - I was counting from the DRM letter date, not the EMI date. But it's close.)