Cell Phones: Does Apple’s iPhone have any business in the smartphone market?
By Mike Ferro
Apple who sold 1.7 million units of the iPhone worldwide claims the No. 2 spot in the smart phone market in the US. It’s surprising considering Apple had no vested interest or market share in the cell phone industry until last year.
It’s ridiculous how Apple products seem to take off whatever they decide to do, except their Mac computers. Even that, I’m quite sure if Microsoft didn’t exist we would all be using hip Macs today.
What makes the iPhone so great? It has nifty touchscreen capabilities, third party software capabilities and you just want to get it because it has an "i" in front of it.
According to ChannelWeb apparently, Nokia holds the top spot when it comes to smartphones selling 14.6 million smartphones worldwide with RIM Blackberry coming in second worldwide with 4.3 million units. It’s quite odd because in the US the Blackberry is quite more popular in the smartphone segment then Nokia.
The Blackberry series is arguably well known as one of the best smartphones that can push e-mail, especially in the US. The iPhone has extensive multimedia capabilities much like the iPod Touch, but I’m not sure if this phone should be categorized as a smartphone.
Many analyst have announced in the past that they do not consider the iPhone a smartphone. However now with Apple announcing their support for Web 2.0 application on the iPhone does this now mean the iPhone is a smartphone?
Whatever the iPhone is, it’s surge in popularity have the major phone manufactures looking over their shoulder.
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June 7th, 2008
Just my own opinion – if phones are like people and processors are like brains. Then Operating systems are like minds. All phones, like all people, have brains but not everyone can use that brain.
Typical ’smartphones’ are the ones that have college degrees. They go to work in their suits and work nice mid-level jobs in cubicles and then retire when a newer model comes out. But really they are only as intuitive as the textbooks they studied from.
But now comes along the iPhone. This dude pitches up in designer jeans on a hot-red motorbike. Everyone at work colleagues frown at him because of his unconventional appearance and non-conformist style. They all say he doesn’t belong their because he doesn’t fit in.
But the reality is that this guy has a higher IQ level than all these other suits put together. Wherever he studied, he has the ability to think outside the box . Turns out he’s an ambitious entrepreneur intent on succeeding. The Richard Branson of the device world.
June 7th, 2008
Sorry, but that piece of wank sounds just like Apple advertising copy. In fact, it’s a straight lift from the Mac vs PC characters that recently haunted our TV screens.
When Apple opens the iPhone up for third party application development, AND allows users their own choice of telco without having to resort to unauthorised hacks, then I’ll concede the smartphone label.
Until then, it’s just another network-locked cell-phone with capacity for email, web browsing and multimedia. Big frigging deal – my entry level Samsung phone does all of of that too, for a fraction of the price.
At least my phone has 3G capability….
June 7th, 2008
The piece of wank I mention is the post by Shiraz, not the original article.
June 7th, 2008
“But now comes along the iPhone. This dude pitches up in designer jeans on a hot-red motorbike. Everyone at work colleagues frown at him because of his unconventional appearance and non-conformist style. They all say he doesn’t belong their because he doesn’t fit in.
But the reality is that this guy has a higher IQ level than all these other suits put together. Wherever he studied, he has the ability. to think outside the box . Turns out he’s an ambitious entrepreneur intent on succeeding. The Richard Branson of the device world.”
Right. Think different just like the rest. These are the geniuses that stood in-line, some took off work, while Jobs laughed his ass off because he knew there would be an ample supply. Did the geniuses get pissed at Jobs for exploiting them? No. They praised him for having the genius to have enough product to sell.
Think Lemming.