The iPhone 3G and iPhone clones
| By Phil Goldstein |
The news: AT&T Mobility launched the Apple's iPhone 3G July 11, ushering in a new era of high-speed data capable smartphones. Apple's second-generation iPhone, which featured the same sleek look and innovative touchscreen user interface of the first-gen iPhone, now offered consumers the ability to surf the Web using AT&T's HSPA network and that sparked a flurry of iPhone clones.
T-Mobile USA jumped into the ring post-iPhone 3G, with the launch of the G1, the first phone based on Google's Android platform, which boasted a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. Then came the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, formerly known as the Tube. Verizon Wireless followed up shortly thereafter with the Motorola Krave ZN4--billed as both a touchscreen phone and a flip phone.
Then, the deluge came: the Samsung Epix (AT&T); the HTC Touch Pro, a soup-ed up version of the HTC Touch Diamond (Sprint Nextel); the $800 Sony Ericsson Xperia X1; the Samsung Saga (Verizon) and Samsung Eternity (AT&T); Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm--the first touchscreen BlackBerry (Verizon); the Samsung Omnia (Verizon); and the Nokia N97.
Why it was significant: It is easy to pronounce this or that as a paradigm shift, but the launch of the iPhone 3G truly was one. The genius lay behind its marketing, with each 30-second ad almost like an infomercial for how to use the multiple features and applications of the iPhone 3G, and then, at the end, reminding customers that it was a phone, too. Apple marketed the iPhone 3G as a mobile computer and digital media player first, and a phone second. And other handset makers felt they had to follow suit, launching a bevy of sleek phones with touchscreen UI's. While each pretender to the throne was looking to be an iPhone-Killer, so far the iPhone 3G remains at the top, simply by virtue that no other handset has achieved the same kind of brand recognition that the iPhone 3G has.
Well, it's a year later, but you were right about some things, JR - the iPhone 3G was/is a paradigm changer - and it is because it's a computer (with 100,000 apps now) that does it all. it's a blank slate that the user makes 'personal' - the advertising is pointing that out, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe interface is smart. It's a 'deserved' win - not because of marketing alone, but predominately because of design and functionality - it lives up to the hype!
With your unique history and understanding of the 'phone' world and history, I look forward to more observations on the JR blog :-)
ONS...It's interesting how the iPhone also changed the game for Blackberry, which was rather content where it was.
ReplyDeleteDon't count the iPod Touch out as a smart communications device, I beginning to discover it and that it's underrated in the marketplace...that's where I'm heading next on this topic!
Thanks for coming back a year later and reminding me of this post.