No, you could always install APK's manually, and there were early package managers, you didn't need a computer at all or to jailbreak an android.

Then with the windows mobile world, you could install manually, or use activesync which really sucked. Same with Palm. I don't recall Blackberry.

> No, you could always install APK's manually, and there were early package managers

In fact on the iPhone Cydia existed before the app store ever did. Apple had decided that web apps were the way to go.