Ah, the glory of the Apple release cycle. First, the long awaited, ultra-cool product is announced, and then the products that try to copy it are released. The iPhone is no exception to this rule. First, there was the LG Prada, and now the Samsung Ultra Smart F700.
The Ultra Smart F700, like the iPhone and its copiers, sports a large (2.78 in.), widescreen (440 by 240 pixels), touchscreen display, a sleek form factor (0.66 in. thick), and multimedia capabilities. But, the Ultra Smart F700 also sports two new features that could give it an edge over the iPhone. The first is a full, pull-down QWERY keyboard. This keyboard slides out of the phone, and makes it easier to make text input than using the error-prone (even though it does have excellent typo-correction) on-screen iPhone keyboard. The second new feature of Samsung’s phone is 3G connectivity. But this isn’t just ordinary 3G, but a super-fast version of the HSDPA standard. This newer type of 3G will offer speeds of up to a whopping 7.2 Mbps, and will most likely run on Cingular’s network. In addition, the Ultra Smart F700 will also have a 5 megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, and Bluetooth wireless capabilities.
While the Ultra Smart F700 looks pretty cool, I still doubt that it will be able to compete with the iPhone, especially as they will probably be sold by the same cellular provider. But, if the price is low enough, Samsung’s phone may be able to make a tiny, but possibly significant dent in the iPhone’s market share.
Unfortunately, the cell phone market is about as closed as the Windows market.
All these new phones are great but what good are they when you are stuck with yearly contracts with another company? I guess most people here the hype but can't get to it.
I hope you mean OpenMoko copiers vice iPhone copiers. OpenMoko debuted last year.
http://www.openmoko.com/
While I think the iphone is cool and will prob try it out, to imply that LG or another handset provider is copying Apple's entry into the market is not quite logical. From what I can tell, LG & other handset producers are launching their products now, not this coming summer. How could they have copied Apple?
It may be a lot of fun to say Apple invented everything about the iPhone first, but may I remind you that the LG Prada was announced and showed last fall, so it's not one of the "products that try to copy" Apple's products, as you say. And Apple didn't copy them (at least not significantly), since they didn't have time to create the iPhone in two months...
Also, you missed the OMG 4G COMING-OUT-BEFORE-THE-IPHONE SO COOL CONFIRMED ZUNE PHONE! (I hope you catch the sarcasm...) CrunchGear says that "the idea of branding it as part of the Zune ecosystem, from the brown color through the interface, came as a recent decision as a response to Apple's iPhone". Oh really? Great idea, Microsoft, we now know thanks to the unbelievable success of the Zune that everybody loves brown. (more here: http://crunchgear.com/2007/02/09/zne-phone-confirmed-launch-scenario-4g-wimax-action-rumors-off-the-wtf-o-meter/)
Of course, one burning question remains: will Microsoft offer special hidden pink editions of the Zune Phone?
The one thing I believe will show whether the first iPhone succeeds or fails, is how easy it is to use.
Lots of effort appears to go into the technology of mobile phones. Such as faster data transfer, higher resolution cameras and more storage capacity.
So far, I haven't seen that many mobile phone manufacturers put a lot of effort into getting the user experience right first.
The only example I can think of, is the early Nokia handsets.
They were always the benchmark against which I would measure ease of use, when it comes to mobiles.
Nobody I know, has ever said that the early Nokias were difficult to use.
In contrast, they thought Motorola phones such as the StarTAC were unnecessarily complicated.
If Apple can set a benchmark for ease of use in high end phones, we may see the iPhone take a considerable market share.
It's not always about having the most features.