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Posted on 04/04/2008 12:37:26 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Rivals trying to come up with an iPhone slayer will need more than fancy features to outdo the leader
Since the iPhone hit the market in mid-2007, competing phonemakers and wireless-service providers that don't have a deal to sell the Apple (AAPL) device have tried their best to betray no envy. They rolled out a few devices mimicking the iPhone's touch screen, but they mostly hoped the phone, offered exclusively by AT&T (T), wouldn't become a hit. Too bad. By the fourth quarter of last year, Apple had grabbed more than a quarter of the U.S. market for what are known as smartphones, the mobile phones that handle computer-like tasks such as e-mail and Web browsing.
A new crop of would-be iPhone slayers is about to hit the market. To help them compete with AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel (S) are working with some of the biggest names in the industry, including Nokia (NOK) and Samsung Electronics, to develop new handhelds. On Apr. 1, Sprint unveiled an iPhone lookalike from Samsung called Instinct that will debut later this year. "[Apple] is not going to own the space themselves," says Danny Bowman, Sprint's vice-president. "They're going to have a lot of competition."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
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“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,” they said.
I was ready to switch providers to get my wife an iPhone. She doesn’t want to switch, but my youngest daughter is about ready to get a cellphone. Maybe I give her mine and go to iPhone myself.
What say ye, everyone? are they worth it - almost an extra $2 a day? (but that is all I hear - they are way worth it...)
An Apple a Day, Keeps the Competitors at Bay.
LOLOLOL
I have one. I like it. I have no complaints about paying extra.
Yes. Even for non-business use, the ability to have the real internet available at any time in any place is a priceless advantage for a consumer.
“You say X is good? Let me check that on Amazon...”
“Hm, you say Y is as low as you’ll go on that car? Let me check what Edmunds says your invoice really is on this car.” (and watch as the price of the car takes a mysterious plunge).
Things like that. And that doesn’t even begin to get into the utility of Google Maps + Traffic, or weather forecasts, etc., etc.
I have a Blackberry Pearl. I’m seriously considering the iPhone. I love my BB but it would be so nice to get the total web format rather than the Reader’s Digest Condensed version and to see YouTube vids, not to mention get the websites using flash.
Erm - no Flash on the iPhone yet. Probably will be soon, now that the iPhone IS the second leading mobile Internet platform, and will probably overtake the Blackberry in the next year.
That said, other than that, it’s awesome on the internet. Despite the 2.5G connection, my iPhone proves *faster* at loading full pages than most other peoples’ Palms or Blackberries can load their counterpart pages.
This sounds suspiciously like the “iPod killers” that get announced every year and disappear without a trace once they hit the marketplace. (Anyone seen a Zune lately?)
Once again, an industry doesn’t realize that it’s not just the components that matter, it’s a seamless end-to-end experience that sells your goods and services.
I say “Yea” on the iPhone. I have had mine since January and I absolutely love it. I am ready for the 3G model when it comes out, hopefully this year sometime...can’t wait for the faster speeds. Also can’t wait for the update in June with the 802.1X abilities forthcoming.
Anyhoo, it’s worth it, very worth it.
Closest browser ever to the iPhone Safari, and it even handles Ajax.
That’s like saying, “I just installed a new Pioneer stereo into my Yugo and now I can get FM! And play CDs!”
It doesn’t fix the fact that Crackberries SUCK.
This is soo funny!
Even their Knock Offs will be like the ZUNE!
If Nokia or Sony or Samsung could make good hardware, they WOULD HAVE...
But even saying they MIGHT...
Who’s making the software for the damn things?
Oh yeah... MICROSHAFT...
Until they get with the concept that the hardware and software must be designed by the same people at the same time...
They are nothing but pale imitations of the real Apple.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH !!
Awesome !!
Given that the iPhone has its own version of OS X 10.5.whatever (Leopard), corrections welcome, it is essentially impossible for competitors to imitate the iPhone. But this won’t stop some consumers from thinking that that they can get a basic iPhone equivalent from Apple / AT&T competitors.
Actually, I think they could come out with an equivalent of the iPhone if all the phone companies standardized on an open source set of API's, which will exist on top of a light weight, flexible open source operating system, and they each stuck to the standard, developed for it, and contributed their own extensions to the API, they might stand a chance of developing the baseline technologies necessary to compete with the iPhone.
The Blackberry has the best chance of surviving the iPhone's effects on the expectations of consumers, but even RIM seems to be in iPhone denial, and they stand to lose customers and clients to both the iPhone knockoffs and the iPhone if RIM doesn't move toward being more flexible in the way they view their own product and customers. Also, the Blackberry is a business oriented device. It's mystique discouraged average "jane" and "joe" adopters. The iPhone on the other hand has much broader market appeal, and with the SDK coming out, it will soon have the software packages that will allow it to appeal to the corporate world as well. If the Blackberry survives, it will probably evolve to appeal to the general consumer as well.
But you're right, the market for smart phones changed dramatically with the introduction of the iPhone. And manufacturers and service providers are going to have to look at cell phones as software platforms. Also, Apple's market with the iPhone is significantly larger than any other smartphone manufacturer. The larger potential customer base will enable Apple to throw some weight around in the corporate area... and this doesn't just apply to iPhones, but to computers as well.
I was able to get a replacement Palm Centro 690 for $55 plus tax. The price was right, but I can't believe that Palm hasn't updated their operating system, or at least GUI, ONE BIT since the iPhone was announced 1.33 years ago. Absolutely insane! And this is after they hired Jon Rubenstien after he left Apple!!!
Whomever is at the top of the org chart at Palm needs to undergo the professional equivalent of being drawn and quartered, ASAP.
I agree with you concerning the technical possibilities for a potential iPhone killers. My reservation is that I don’t see either the cooperation or, to be blunt, the expertise to pull off an effective iPhone killer.
Psssst - Rubenstein is a *hardware* engineer, not a software engineer. To give him credit, the Palm hardware’s gotten better since he’s been there.
But he’s not a software guy. Never has been. Which is why there are Palms running Palm OS... and Palms running Windows Mobile now. And why the Palm OS hasn’t really gone anywhere in the last three years.
Once again, an industry doesn’t realize that it’s not just the components that matter, it’s a seamless end-to-end experience that sells your goods and services.
You are right, and the amazing thing about this is that the latecomers have the opportunity to buy an iPhone, iPod, or whatever and then see how it works. Not take it apart, take it home to their wife and let her use it for a week. And here is where the famous reality distortion field actually lives. Despite having an example of how easy something can be, these guys go back to work and churn out something that only a computer scientist can use effectively, and think it will sell just fine.
Well, if they price it low enough they will sell a few until folks figure out they can really use the fool thing.
Where do you get that extra $2 per day? Are you amortizing the cost of the iPhone into the contract term? The extra cost is less than $1 per day for the data plan. $20 per month on top of any standard voice plan.
And the answer is yes, regardless if it is $2 or $1...
Well, it’s the same pattern Adobe’s had towards the Mac platform for the past decade: Ignore it, let the product stagnate, then discover people are considering or have already switched away to another product, frantically update the product... Repeat.
Adobe ignored Flash on the Mac, Jobs rewarded them with no Flash on the iPhone, the iPhone has been a stunning, runaway success, now Adobe will scramble and do whatever Jobs wants (including fixing Flash/Mac) to make sure Jobs doesn’t do something like include Silverlight on the iPhone.
We won’t see Silverlight on the iPhone, either.
Apple is leveraging W3C standards to control iPhone content. Why would they open the iPhone to a method of presenting web content that they have no control over? Makes no sense. Toss in the fact that Flash and Silverlight are hardware-intensive, and you have a recipe for disaster on a mobile device.
Unless Adobe seriously streamlines Flash’s structure and system footprint, it will never appear on the iPhone, and I can’t say it’s missed.
Apple’s DOOOOOOOOMED. ;’)
I can do most of what I do at my desk, on a mountaintop in WV, or in my kayak on the Shenandoah!
Get two, daughter'll be glad you did! Wife will be jealous!
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