Symbian open-sourced? I was like WTF when I read that, but in the article it links to, there's nothing about open source. They're "opening it up", whatever the hell that means, and they're turning over the IP to a foundation, but that's not the same as going OSS. They might dabble with it, but they don't really seem to "get" it: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/...
Also, I wonder how SE, LG, and the others feel about Nokia snatching up all the Symbian shares. It'd make me a little nervous if I were them.
Megan Boris
· 1 year ago
The iphone will never get "killed" because there will always be people who are dedicated fans of Apple products. I agree with the article, the iPod is still very popular, probably the most popular MP3 player. I think the iPhone is safe, plus it's a really cool gadget
Shaun
· 1 year ago
Blackberry could make a dent in the market since it is available on all networks. Over the Summer Blackberry will be strong with new phones.
Sol Young
· 1 year ago
BlackBerry is turning in to the 2008 Nextel.
Bill
· 1 year ago
When you can use your iphone with one hand let me know. Blackberry Thunder is and will be the iphone killer just keep your eyes and ears out for it later this year.
infused08
· 1 year ago
You can. You just take your dominant hand and start using it. You can type with your thumb. You can expand the screen with your index finger and your thumb. You're just another person not to fall to the ultimate regime, iPhone. iPhone spits on Blackberry. The only thing that Blackberry has that iPhone doesn't have and I would like to see on the iPhone is graphing capabilities. 3G iPhone is coming out, so never mind... 3G iPhone is the only thing that kills the iPhone.
Oli
· 1 year ago
I think the only thing that's going to kill the iPhone is the 3G one !
waffles54
· 1 year ago
There will be a iphone killer.. it's called cheap laptops
Max Roeleveld
· 1 year ago
There already are cheap laptops, and I don't think they'll ever kill the iPhone, or any other smartphone for that matter. A cheap laptop is still bulkier to carry around than a phone.
UMPCs might make a dent, but those are still way to expensive right now.
Rex Hammock
· 1 year ago
Tech pundits -- the professional and the privately passionate -- tend to view any market category as a zero-sum game. In reality, many players often succeed successfully in a category. Market share shifts, but rarely is something "killed." I used to keep a running tally of all the products that tech reporters and bloggers used the hypenated -killer tag to describe what they would do to iPod. In that case, no one even gave Apple a scratch even needing a Bandaid. Android may appeal to some, but by its introduction, Apple will be well on its way to designing a 3rd and 4th generation iPhone -- and with Apple, it's now exploding eco-system of developers and accessory marketers. I wish all competitors good luck. Competition is good. But "-killing" iPhone is not the point here. Finding niches where a specialized device can work better than an iPhone is the better objective.
Nside Nashville
· 1 year ago
Well said Rex
Synthmeister
· 1 year ago
Agreed. iPhone competitors are going to have to come up with ways to be profitable in niche markets, just like Apple did the computing markets in the 80s, 90s and even today. Apple still has very small marketshare, albeit a growing share, but they are hugely profitable.
Bastian
· 1 year ago
Very good post. Exactly my thoughts.
I wouldnt underestimate the significance of the user interface. The UI is imho the single most important thing about the iPhone. As many have already pointed out, the plattform and the technology of the iPhone isnt that special. There is no single feature you couldnt find in almost any other Smartphone but the iPhone made such an impact because you could take advantage of all of thease features because the interface is dead simple.
@waffle54: Strange... I was thinking about that recently but came to a completly different conclusion: If smartphones in generel and the iPhone in particular become just a little bit more powerfull they could very vell replace laptops^^
Sol Young
· 1 year ago
Remember PocketPC 2002? 4 hardware buttons at the bottom of the device + a grid layout of icons on screen.
Multi-touch + full browser are the reasons nobody can touch the iPhone.
Sash
· 1 year ago
I bet Chuck Norris could kill the iPhone with one single roundhouse kick.
Oli
· 1 year ago
He'd just have to look at it !
Sol Young
· 1 year ago
Did Apple really come up with the standard of 4 primary app shortcuts and then placing the other icons above? There are two systems that immediately spring to mind:
1. Windows 3.1 desktops 2. PocketPC 2002/2003 - 4 physical buttons at the bottom of the device and icons above
What Apple nailed is multi-touch implementation and svelte appearance and movement between apps. Oh, and a real browser in the device... Nobody else has done that, and it's the biggest reason for owning an iPhone (really).
AeroMac
· 1 year ago
The article wasnt talking about PC's or Handheld devices. We are talking smartphones here people.
Alex Sicre
· 1 year ago
My wife is the real iPhone killer. She is on her third. Luckily Apple replaced the first two after they mysteriously died. Good post, but isn't Apple trying to capture RIM's market - and they are very behind?
I am going to stick with my 8G original for now (had it since day 2 of release), but will probably update this fall depending. The touch screen for texting and email is not the best, I prefer my blackberry - but what are you going to do?
Does Apple have plans to let the touch keyboard revolve like it does for web browsing? That would really be an improvement.
Sol Young
· 1 year ago
The rotated keyboard is application specific. In some of the applications developed for jailbroken iPhones, a rotated keyboard is available.
Apple will leave this up to the application developers. Doubtful we'll see the Mail application include this for the initial release.
Sol
Synthmeister
· 1 year ago
I don't think Apple is worried about capturing BB's current market so much as taking new markets going forwards. They just want the iPhone to provide 80% of the functionality of the BB (and MS Exchange) to be a legitimate alternative all while they take over the consumer smartphone market.
Many businesses don't really need the high-powered BB/Exchange stuff but could really exploit the unique features of the iPhone. Those are the people Apple wants to grab.
At the same time they are developing their own BB Push/Exchange killer software that will be much cheaper to run than than BB or MS Exchange.
Then there's the whole handheld, gaming market. At $199, an iPod Touch could put some serious hurt on Nintendo & PSP in the next 5 years. I am expecting a complete revamp of the iTouch price points/memory in the fall.
Sebhelyesfarku
· 1 year ago
The iPhone is for brainwashed Mactards and fashion lemmings. Nothing to kill.
Harry Boner
· 1 year ago
" Mactards and fashion lemmings. Nothing to kill."
Even Mactards and fashion lemmings have money.
Apple may be getting low hanging fruit, but there's a LOT of money to be made and the other companies aren't getting that money...
If the iPhone and Apple are so bad, why can't other companies come out with something to get this money from these "lemmings"?
PERHAPS, Apple is onto something?!
Will Parker
· 1 year ago
"The iPhone is for brainwashed Mactards and fashion lemmings. Nothing to kill."
All the major phone manufacturers AND all the cell wireless companies are scrambling to become brainwashed Mactards and fashion lemmings, then.
I'm sorry you miss your old rotary dial phone, but it ain't coming back.
D.
· 1 year ago
In the beginning, it slightly bothered me how the iPod didn't have a killer, how Apple was able to keep their price steady and not have to drop it. Because face it, from the date of their release to today, people are still as crazy about iPods and still continue to buy them. Obviously, people like them.
Apple won't have a killer. Google's Android may appeal to some, but it won't be the same as the iPhone, seeing as how the iPods were a hit, Macs are nice, and quite a few people have been satisfied with the iPhone, people know they can, so to speak, trust Apple and their products.
It's all about customer satisfaction. And Apple provides that.
Kernel Klink
· 1 year ago
It's the operating system stupid!
It's the ecosystem stupid!
No it's the combination of both plus the ease of use and the GUI.
NO other company can match these and Apple's creativity and now with the HUGE onslaught of APPLICATIONS there is no hope for the killers.
Microsoft has been at this for ten years and Apple passed them standing still a year ago. Next RIM and Nokia fall.
There IS no competition NOW and there is no competitor who CAN compete in the foreseeable future, JUST LIKE THE iPOD!
Apple's unmatchable secret sauce is OS-X!
Viswakarma
· 1 year ago
While Apple focuses on developing an integrated user interface eco-system, the others trying to develop Frankenstein Monsters!
andrew wise
· 1 year ago
The iPhone EDGE is the best iPhone killer when it comes to non-AT&T networks. I put together a list of "iPhone 3g killers", for those users not on Sprint, Verizon or T-mobile a couple days ago, which is a shame because I covered this same issue.
Oh well, iPhone 4g next year FTW!
Visual.Noise
· 1 year ago
i was nodding my head here until i got to this part:
"But if you can reach back in your mind to the pre-iPhone time, you’ll remember that four main icons for navigation and several rows of icons for applications is not some universal navigation standard for smartphones. Apple engineers created it [the UI], and it already seems so natural that other companies have more or less “adopted†it for their own products."
actually i recall LG's KE850 being shown off nearly a month before the iphone's announcement. prior to the KE850 and the iPhone, there were no true touchscreen phones. both phones were announced within days of each other, both with similiar user interfacces. actually if you think about it, all of these "universal navigation standards" were based off the Palm OS, so everyone should be thanking Palm Computing for pioneering the iphone (and virtually every other touch screen phone and pda interface.) Apple and others simply adopted and refined a working design.
logically thinking about it, when you have a touch screen interface, what is more efficient than a gridded layout? even before the PDA age, there was only one possible logical choice.
while i agree that the iphone cannot be killed, it is not due to a superior interface. it is mostly due to marketing. its no secret that apple's marketing team is a beast of a machine. the iphone's popularity will not be destroyed by the introduction of a new mobile device with superior features and more user friendly interface. largely attributed to successful advertising. people already have it in their heads that the iphone is whats up, and for the most part you cannot tell them otherwise. not saying that the iphone is bad, but theres no denying that the real mastermind here is apples marketing team, not the engineering department.
R
· 1 year ago
ugh first of all... all you iphone freaks... the lg prada came out before the iphone did... so who really copied who? and the HTC Touch Pro is gonna kill the iphone! =]
Visual.Noise
· 1 year ago
the LG Prada's official press release was a few days after the official announcement of the iphone. true the LG Prada (LG KE850) was released before the iphone however both were in design at the same time, so you technically cant say that apple copied LG, because they were already 8 or 9 months into design. but as i stated above, you CAN say that they both copied palm.
Cam Smithers
· 1 year ago
Palm's interface came from Apple via the Newton.
Visual.Noise
· 1 year ago
i dont recall early versions of the newton using gridded icons till 96, by which time palm was already in production.
CraigK
· 1 year ago
Why is it that every article from Mashable that I start reading and think the author is an idiot, Stan has written it. Ugh.. He's an Apple Fanboy too, great. Is their an anti-stan feed for Mashable? Gotta look for another blog.
rt
· 1 year ago
"...that the real mastermind here is apples marketing team, not the engineering department."
Sorry, Charlie, but marketing didn't sell me on the iPhone. I waited 10 years for a smartphone whose manual wasn't as thick or thicker than the phone. I've got no patience to learn tech stuff the way the Japanese do with their "advanced more than any other" phones.
Drop dead simple is why I love this thing. Why my tech-illiterate relatives love it. I sold them on it as "simple" and iPhone delivered on my promise.
Oh, an now that I've got credibility, they are looking for guidance on their new Mac. Halo.
anemi
· 1 year ago
Whoa! No killers out there? The first gen almost killed itself. Selling 2 million US copies out of 5 million projected is not exactly runaway demand. I'm not seeing panic buyers for the $200 2nd gen with the privilege of a lengthy and pricier marriage contract with AT&T. I guess, though, if you are a fan of slow data on that groovy EDGE platform, this is a must have device to ride shotgun in your HUMMER.
Max Roeleveld
· 1 year ago
I recall hearing "6M out of a projected 10M". Also, the 3G iPhone does, well, 3G, at least in places where that's available. You may not be aware of it, but there's a whole world out there, with lots of countries that are NOT the US.
Thanks for playing.
James Katt
· 1 year ago
Apple's iPhone has no competitor because:
1. The iPhone is a platform - OS X - for which hundreds of thousands of applications will be developed - outstripping what others can do, charging developers lower (only 30%) than what others do (50-75%) for selling their wares.
2. The iPhone is a billion dollar ecosystem. Look at all the cases made for the iPhone. Look at all the accessories, speakers, etc. There is no other cell phone with this ecosystem. Customers want customization to make themselves unique. The iPhone does this enormously well. Other cell phones have ZERO.
3. The iPhone has the iTunes Music Store for buying stuff and downloading stuff. There is no competitor to the iTunes Music Store. it is a beast without peer, gong on for years now.
4. The iPhone has rabid, word of mouth, free advertisement from bloggers and websites all over the place. Apple reaps billions in free advertisement for its products. The Rumor mill is just one huge free advertisement for the iPhone. What product has this much free advertisement and marketing?
5. The iPhone has the best UI and Design. Apple has the best UI designers. Period. Everything else looks old in comparison and slow. Design at Apple is how things work - not just how they look.
6. The iPhone has developers and near-free development tools. To develop for other phones costs and arm and leg.
7. The iPhone has the best browser - bar none. I use it more often for web browsing than my computer. It is Ubiquitous.
8. The iPhone has the Apple Stores. Everyone else's store is dead. Apple's is the place to go, has geniuses, has other stuff to buy.
9. The iPhone has the best touch screen. It is solid glass - very classy, tough. Using it is sexy and very personal. It is lickable. Customers love lickable.
10. The iPhone is the sum of all these parts and more. This is more than any single other smartphone- which have nothing to back them up.
11. The iPhone has soul. Everything else looks like a bizarro clone.
12. The iPhone is so good, it becomes the center of your life. Your laptop or desktop becomes the peripheral. Everything integrates around it. Other cell phones have nothing.
Jim Kerr
· 1 year ago
@James Katt
The essence of everything you wrote could also have been said of the Apple Macintosh when it launched. But what happened? Microsoft copied key elements of the interface and went on to dominate the OS/PC space.
The issue here is not about UI. The best parts of the iPhone UI will get copied, as we saw at the Google I/O conference and the Android OS demonstration. The real issue is which phone will have the most robust application and carrier support. THAT phone will have the dominant market share.
Unlike with the PC, it may turn out that no one company will own this space. Android, Symbian, MS, Apple, etc, may all have significant pieces of the pie. In this world, the iPhone won't "die," but it certainly won't be dominant.
Max Roeleveld
· 1 year ago
Keep in mind, though, that this isn't 1984, and a lot of things have changed since then. I seriously doubt that the same thing will happen.
The part where Microsoft effectively got to take over the PC world was a time in which Apple and other competitors were asleep at the wheel.
HenriqueM
· 1 year ago
This phones are very beautiful but not pratical. Good to play and fun, not very good corporate massive use. I think that the LG, Samsung and HTC are better than the Apple's iPhone. Tegra APX rules. The forthcoming UMPC will be certainly better. O mp3 players, there's a huge list of very good devices. I think Apple is more a question of Philosophy/Lifestyle.
All Comments
Also, I wonder how SE, LG, and the others feel about Nokia snatching up all the Symbian shares. It'd make me a little nervous if I were them.
UMPCs might make a dent, but those are still way to expensive right now.
I wouldnt underestimate the significance of the user interface.
The UI is imho the single most important thing about the iPhone.
As many have already pointed out, the plattform and the technology of the iPhone isnt that special. There is no single feature you couldnt find in almost any other Smartphone but the iPhone made such an impact because you could take advantage of all of thease features because the interface is dead simple.
@waffle54:
Strange... I was thinking about that recently but came to a completly different conclusion:
If smartphones in generel and the iPhone in particular become just a little bit more powerfull they could very vell replace laptops^^
Multi-touch + full browser are the reasons nobody can touch the iPhone.
1. Windows 3.1 desktops
2. PocketPC 2002/2003 - 4 physical buttons at the bottom of the device and icons above
What Apple nailed is multi-touch implementation and svelte appearance and movement between apps. Oh, and a real browser in the device... Nobody else has done that, and it's the biggest reason for owning an iPhone (really).
I am going to stick with my 8G original for now (had it since day 2 of release), but will probably update this fall depending. The touch screen for texting and email is not the best, I prefer my blackberry - but what are you going to do?
Does Apple have plans to let the touch keyboard revolve like it does for web browsing? That would really be an improvement.
Apple will leave this up to the application developers. Doubtful we'll see the Mail application include this for the initial release.
Sol
Many businesses don't really need the high-powered BB/Exchange stuff but could really exploit the unique features of the iPhone. Those are the people Apple wants to grab.
At the same time they are developing their own BB Push/Exchange killer software that will be much cheaper to run than than BB or MS Exchange.
Then there's the whole handheld, gaming market. At $199, an iPod Touch could put some serious hurt on Nintendo & PSP in the next 5 years. I am expecting a complete revamp of the iTouch price points/memory in the fall.
Even Mactards and fashion lemmings have money.
Apple may be getting low hanging fruit, but there's a LOT of money to be made and the other companies aren't getting that money...
If the iPhone and Apple are so bad, why can't other companies come out with something to get this money from these "lemmings"?
PERHAPS, Apple is onto something?!
All the major phone manufacturers AND all the cell wireless companies are scrambling to become brainwashed Mactards and fashion lemmings, then.
I'm sorry you miss your old rotary dial phone, but it ain't coming back.
Apple won't have a killer. Google's Android may appeal to some, but it won't be the same as the iPhone, seeing as how the iPods were a hit, Macs are nice, and quite a few people have been satisfied with the iPhone, people know they can, so to speak, trust Apple and their products.
It's all about customer satisfaction. And Apple provides that.
It's the ecosystem stupid!
No it's the combination of both plus the ease of use and the GUI.
NO other company can match these and Apple's creativity and now with the HUGE onslaught of APPLICATIONS there is no hope for the killers.
Microsoft has been at this for ten years and Apple passed them standing still a year ago. Next RIM and Nokia fall.
There IS no competition NOW and there is no competitor who CAN compete in the foreseeable future, JUST LIKE THE iPOD!
Apple's unmatchable secret sauce is OS-X!
Oh well, iPhone 4g next year FTW!
"But if you can reach back in your mind to the pre-iPhone time, you’ll remember that four main icons for navigation and several rows of icons for applications is not some universal navigation standard for smartphones. Apple engineers created it [the UI], and it already seems so natural that other companies have more or less “adopted†it for their own products."
actually i recall LG's KE850 being shown off nearly a month before the iphone's announcement. prior to the KE850 and the iPhone, there were no true touchscreen phones. both phones were announced within days of each other, both with similiar user interfacces. actually if you think about it, all of these "universal navigation standards" were based off the Palm OS, so everyone should be thanking Palm Computing for pioneering the iphone (and virtually every other touch screen phone and pda interface.) Apple and others simply adopted and refined a working design.
logically thinking about it, when you have a touch screen interface, what is more efficient than a gridded layout? even before the PDA age, there was only one possible logical choice.
while i agree that the iphone cannot be killed, it is not due to a superior interface. it is mostly due to marketing. its no secret that apple's marketing team is a beast of a machine. the iphone's popularity will not be destroyed by the introduction of a new mobile device with superior features and more user friendly interface. largely attributed to successful advertising. people already have it in their heads that the iphone is whats up, and for the most part you cannot tell them otherwise. not saying that the iphone is bad, but theres no denying that the real mastermind here is apples marketing team, not the engineering department.
and the HTC Touch Pro is gonna kill the iphone! =]
Sorry, Charlie, but marketing didn't sell me on the iPhone. I waited 10 years for a smartphone whose manual wasn't as thick or thicker than the phone. I've got no patience to learn tech stuff the way the Japanese do with their "advanced more than any other" phones.
Drop dead simple is why I love this thing. Why my tech-illiterate relatives love it. I sold them on it as "simple" and iPhone delivered on my promise.
Oh, an now that I've got credibility, they are looking for guidance on their new Mac. Halo.
Thanks for playing.
1. The iPhone is a platform - OS X - for which hundreds of thousands of applications will be developed - outstripping what others can do, charging developers lower (only 30%) than what others do (50-75%) for selling their wares.
2. The iPhone is a billion dollar ecosystem. Look at all the cases made for the iPhone. Look at all the accessories, speakers, etc. There is no other cell phone with this ecosystem. Customers want customization to make themselves unique. The iPhone does this enormously well. Other cell phones have ZERO.
3. The iPhone has the iTunes Music Store for buying stuff and downloading stuff. There is no competitor to the iTunes Music Store. it is a beast without peer, gong on for years now.
4. The iPhone has rabid, word of mouth, free advertisement from bloggers and websites all over the place. Apple reaps billions in free advertisement for its products. The Rumor mill is just one huge free advertisement for the iPhone. What product has this much free advertisement and marketing?
5. The iPhone has the best UI and Design. Apple has the best UI designers. Period. Everything else looks old in comparison and slow. Design at Apple is how things work - not just how they look.
6. The iPhone has developers and near-free development tools. To develop for other phones costs and arm and leg.
7. The iPhone has the best browser - bar none. I use it more often for web browsing than my computer. It is Ubiquitous.
8. The iPhone has the Apple Stores. Everyone else's store is dead. Apple's is the place to go, has geniuses, has other stuff to buy.
9. The iPhone has the best touch screen. It is solid glass - very classy, tough. Using it is sexy and very personal. It is lickable. Customers love lickable.
10. The iPhone is the sum of all these parts and more. This is more than any single other smartphone- which have nothing to back them up.
11. The iPhone has soul. Everything else looks like a bizarro clone.
12. The iPhone is so good, it becomes the center of your life. Your laptop or desktop becomes the peripheral. Everything integrates around it. Other cell phones have nothing.
The essence of everything you wrote could also have been said of the Apple Macintosh when it launched. But what happened? Microsoft copied key elements of the interface and went on to dominate the OS/PC space.
The issue here is not about UI. The best parts of the iPhone UI will get copied, as we saw at the Google I/O conference and the Android OS demonstration. The real issue is which phone will have the most robust application and carrier support. THAT phone will have the dominant market share.
Unlike with the PC, it may turn out that no one company will own this space. Android, Symbian, MS, Apple, etc, may all have significant pieces of the pie. In this world, the iPhone won't "die," but it certainly won't be dominant.
The part where Microsoft effectively got to take over the PC world was a time in which Apple and other competitors were asleep at the wheel.
O mp3 players, there's a huge list of very good devices. I think Apple is more a question of Philosophy/Lifestyle.