According to Mark Kirsten at MultiMedia Intelligence, the iPhone is wakingup the sleeping giant cell phone makers, teaching them a lesson.
"Apple went beyond simply
replacing the keyboard with a huge touch-screen display, they created a fun, yet
effective user interface. It was
different; . . . it was cool; . . it was
sexy; . . . it was pure Apple. The Apple
disciples came out in droves to get the first ones."
Here's more from the commentary Kirsten sent the press:
Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, and yes
Motorola now know that there is a high margin business if you deliver the right
product. The market for smartphones is
growing and is the most lucrative handset market with the highest margins. There were approximately 125M smartphones
sold in 2007.
One of the most
interesting trends in handsets is that there is now a blurring of the lines
between multimedia handsets and smart phones.
"Smartphones" like the Samsung's Instinct, Nokia's N70 and Apple's iPhone
are all loaded with multimedia feature like high resolution image sensors,
compelling displays, and superior music capabilities. A smartphone is commonly defined as being an
open platform handset that allows access to the OS (Operating System) for
application development. Apple is
there. However, the target market for
these handsets has been business professionals.
Now with smartphones adding a full complement of multimedia capabilities,
the market has now split into two classes, with a new consumer-oriented segment
emerging.
Will 'Comes with Music" Beat-Out iTunes?
Handset manufacturers
have been taking conservative, methodical steps to incrementally enhance the
phone. However, Apple's iPhone changed
the nature of competition. Yet, the major handset manufacturers were just
sleeping... not dead.
Now they are
responding, and bringing with them the years of experience and manufacturing
prowess that matches the billion unit annual shipments. Now, the true powerhouse and number one
market share holder, Nokia, has taken its first shot with the 5800 aka
Tubes.
Nokia has the large
touch-screen display. Their XpressMusic
phone comes with music for the first year, challenging the iTunes á
la cart model. In fact, the Tubes
surpasses iPhone on a variety of usability features, including cut and paste,
voice dialing, video dialing, MMS, instant messaging, an expansion MicroSD
Memory Port , and a higher resolution 3.2 megapixel image auto focus sensor with
dual LED flash.
The
Future
Nokia's phone is not
even directly aimed at the iPhone market.
It is being produced at a much lower price for midrange customers looking
for an alternative to the iPhone. It is
about half the cost of Apple's phone. More importantly it does not locked into a
particular service provider, featuring a SIM card in a covenant, easily accessed
slot.
Nokia's
first pass is nice shot across Apples bow.
It is certainly the first of many shots to come. The giant has awoken.
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