Absent iPhone dominates the Mobile World Congress
Once again, the iPhone is the 600-pound gorilla in a room in Barcelona. Though Apple did not take their handset to the Mobile World Congress in Spain, it is still managing to be the star of the show.
It may be that the iPhone is the most imitated of all smartphones, yet none of the imitators have come anywhere close to the success of the original. Smartphone competitors such as Samsung, Nokia, LG, Google, and Research In Motion have already copied major portions of the iPhone, and may well do so again, as others will certainly follow suit. The same is true of the application arena: the competition has tried hard to come up with a workable format for selling apps that would rival the Apple App Store, and they have failed. This year in Barcelona, a group of 24 leaders in the smartphone service business have even formed a consortium to carry the smartphone app wars fight to Apple.
All over Fira de Barcelona convention grounds, vendors and manufacturers are plotting to overthrow the iPhone, according to a New York Times article. The most concentrated representation of the iPhone’s presence in Spain is a group of about 50 iPhone app developers, eager to sell their wares into a new marketplace. In another area, a number of manufacturers are showing off their answers to the iPad, announced a few weeks ago by Apple, and about which no one will be too excited, deferring instead to the iPad. Microsoft will do its best to make its Windows Mobile 7 system look attractive next to the iPhone’s OS 3.0, and will almost certainly fail. And in the back of every mind in Barcelona is the steady gain that Apple makes against all of its rivals with each new analysis of sales and revenues.
Apple has changed the smartphone paradigm from one which was based in the hardware and the technology to one which is based in what services that the phone can offer. The iPhone seems to be asking, “What can I do for you?” and then following up with an app to honor each user request. It is hard for the competition to beat such a smartphone chameleon, able to mold its usability and functionality to the whims of a broadly diverse group of customers. It must be frustrating to be in Barcelona and not even be able to see your target clearly, akin to sparring with the wind.
Related posts:
February 16th, 2010
First of all nobody is trying to overthrow the iphone, just provide alternatives. Second, there is nothing to copy about the iphone, its a black screen that slides left and right, and if you want to say having a place to download apps is copying, then forget to mention that apple is copying android and windows mobile and blackberry by adding copy-paste, and copy every other cell phone in the world by adding a video camera. As for apps go, Apple doesn’t make the apps its the developers, so they can be spread through whatever platform the developer chooses to write them for. Android has 20,000, iphone has 100,000. For every 1 iphone app there 50 or more just like it. I’m not saying the iphone is bad, i love it, but you its naive to say that everyone else is failing.
February 16th, 2010
I hardly ever write comments on articles, but your blog post encouraged me to applaud your writings. Thank you for writing this, I’ll bookmark your blog and check in occasionally. Happy blogging.
February 17th, 2010
Bobby, I think what Michael means is that the iPhone is the trend setter in the market – its what other manufacturers aspire to achieve. I think that put that way, its hard to argue with – some of the features that the iPhone recently added weren’t genre defining, such as the improved camera etc and copy and pasting, but they weren’t exactly just copied from elsewhere, you could argue they copied it from Mac OSX. I think the iPhone is incredibly overpriced, but Apple have got the ‘desirability factor’ as well as a superb product which counts for far more than design and innovation alone these days.
The iPhone has the biggest centralised userbase for App Designers to focus on, and now it looks like the iPhone is going to be on all networks, as it is in the UK, there could be no stopping it. Which is a sad day for innovation all round, so here’s hoping the others pull together and produce some spectacular stuff – to keep Apple on their toes and innovating themselves if nothing else.