Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in There Are No iPhone Killers

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

EP — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 01:07:10 -0000

"Macfan lemming", that was good.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

HenriqueM — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:20:36 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Jim Kerr — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:49:43 -0000

@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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

James Katt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:06:46 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

anemi — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 21:29:31 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

rt — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:16:38 -0000

"...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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

CraigK — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:34:54 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Visual.Noise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:31:06 -0000

i dont recall early versions of the newton using gridded icons till 96, by which time palm was already in production.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Cam Smithers — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:14:53 -0000

Palm's interface came from Apple via the Newton.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Visual.Noise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:04:17 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:57:21 -0000

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! =]

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

AeroMac — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:53:24 -0000

The article wasnt talking about PC's or Handheld devices. We are talking smartphones here people.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Visual.Noise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:49:08 -0000

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, youâ€™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 â€œadoptedâ€ 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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

andrew wise — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:48:16 -0000

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!

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

infused08 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:44:32 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Viswakarma — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:41:56 -0000

While Apple focuses on developing an integrated user interface eco-system, the others trying to develop Frankenstein Monsters!

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Bill — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:14:33 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Kernel Klink — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:35:52 -0000

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!

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Will Parker — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:25:26 -0000

"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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

D. — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:24:49 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

synthmeister — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:20:19 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

synthmeister — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:08:46 -0000

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.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Harry Boner — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:06:00 -0000

" 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?!

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Sebhelyesfarku — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:47:35 -0000

The iPhone is for brainwashed Mactards and fashion lemmings. Nothing to kill.

Re: There Are No iPhone Killers

Sol Young — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:39:48 -0000

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