Competing in Smartphone Industry
by Mehdi Muntazir
Apple’s iphone which has dominated the cell phone industry for a long time seems to have some genuine and potential rivals. New wave of smart phones such as Google’s myTouch and Palm Pre have already created tons of buzz and more are yet to follow. In this increasingly competitive market it is to be seen how iphone will maintain its niche.
So far iphone has been a sheer success both in terms of sales reports as well as of customer satisfaction. Its 3.5 inch touchscreen has been a landmark in the industry and its sleek, intuitive design has attracted many to its customer base. With the ongoing trends in social media and information technology, demand for location based real-time information is surely bound to rise, which is sophisticatedly accomplished by built in GPS. Applications are perhaps the strongest, muscle Iphone has. Today Iphone has more than 50,000 applications with apps for just about anything.
Palm pre, which has been tagged as a major game-changer and iphone killer, was launched on 6th June. Concieved by the former head of Apple, Jon Rubinstein, Palm Pre is based on Palm WebOS, a linux based operating system, which allows multitasking, applications and social media integration. Equipped by physical keyboard, 3.1 inch touch screen, wireless charging and above all multitasking capability the phone certainly possesses all the ammunition to combat the powerful iphone. It also has some basis apps such as Yelp, Youtube, Google maps, Pandora etc and a lot more are expected in near future.
The launch was a success with reports of more than 50,000 sales nationwide in its first week. However the limelight could not stick with Palm pre much longer as Apple announced its next generation of Iphone, named Iphone 3G S, just a couple of days after Pre’s launch. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2009, held at San Jose California on 8th June, also unveiled latest operating system OS 3.0 which brought an array of new features such as search function, copy/paste capability, multimedia messaging and voice recording. With addition to RAM, the new Iphone has increased speed: the reason it is called 3G Speed. A 3 megapixel camera, Video recording and editing capability, voice dialing/recognition and improved battery life are some of the most enticing newly added features. Perhaps the best one is the Compass tool which has already attracted developer’s attention. Some interesting apps are already on the way integrating camera, GPS, compass and internet connectivity together.
The competition heats up further this summer as T-mobile announced it next generation of Google’s G1 phone, named as my Touch 3G, to hit US markets on 5th August. G1 has been a success with sales of more than a million so far. Powered by Google’s open source platform, Android, MyTouch 3G offers 3.2 inch touch screen, WiFi, 3G and multitasking capability. It is thinner and slightly lighter than its predecessor and its sleek design has gathered some good reviews already.
With such a vibrant atmosphere in the Smartphone industry, it would not be an easy task for iphone to maintain its winning ways. One of the main strengths for smartphones today is the number of applications available for users. Google has already exceeded 5000 apps, which, even though much smaller in number than iphone apps, has been a great progress. As more phones are expected to employ Android open source operating systems, this number is increasing every day. On the other hand, Palm Pre SDK is based on Javascript which is much more commonly used then Oriented-C for Iphone, thus making the likelihood of more apps in short period of time.
One of the main strategies Apple has followed is to come up with new features which create a totally new genre of apps development. This time the addition of compass, video recording, voice recognition etc will drive the engine for apps development.
Having analyzed all the stats and features, there is no doubt that Apple’s Iphone is head and shoulders above the rest so far. Recently Apple announced that the number of downloaded applications form App store has exceeded 1.5 billion mark. With more than 65,000 apps available to 40 million iphone and ipod comsumers in 77 countries, there is no doubt that any competitor, who claims to be iphone killer, has to work wonders to turn the tables.
During the last six months Apple’s stocks have steadily surged from $80 to $140. This surely is one measure of their success. The good news from Apple’s point of view is, Steve Jobs is back in the office and with newly transplanted lever his appetite is sure to increase.
