Actually, as stated in the original blog post liked from the article, it was a demo signature certificate for a person named "Apple Computer". Such certificates are offered by VeriSign without validation. The problem is that the iPhone trusts such certificates, and that it doesn't make it clear that it isn't a validated organization name it publishes.

iPhones

It would be funny if it weren't so sad. I guess most people remember the history of the Vista shutdown button. I wonder what Windows would look like today if they stopped designing things by committee back in Redmond.

The reason for the dialog you get when launching a downloaded application for the first time is to counter an otherwise existing flaw where an application could be disguised a document.

The key part of the dialog message is not that the file was downloaded from "the Internet", but rather the fact that the file is "an application".