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Will There Ever Be an IPhone Killer?
- Thread starter Maverick1337
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There is always going to be something better. It's not a matter of if, but rather it's a matter of when.
But for now iPhones are the most awesome mobile device you can get
But for now iPhones are the most awesome mobile device you can get
It depends on what you're looking for. If you want the bleeding edge and customization, then there are plenty of phones that have advantages over iPhone. However, if you want an easy to use media player/browser/phone with a well thought out user experience, it's going to be hard to find an iPhone killer.
Yes. It's technology. One company isn't going to stay on top forever. There will be an iPhone killer in the same way there was a Yahoo! killer and a MySpace killer. Though hopefully for my AAPL holdings, it wont be anytime soon (=
The previous occasion in which a single manufacturer got it so much more right so much sooner than the competition was when Nokia got the user interface right, and SMS in particular at a time when the competition (Motorola and Eriksson at the time) just weren't there yet. Nokia remains the worlds largest mobile phone manufacturer to this day because of that lead they built up. Certainly for a time in the early 2000s, most of my friends took the view that they wouldn't buy any phone that wasn't a Nokia.
Companies pinned their hopes on WAP and then MMS to be the next big thing, but on the small monochrome screens of the early WAP phones (eg Nokia 7110) and the really low resolution colour screens of the first MMS able phones (recall the Sony Eriksson T68i with the clip on camera) meant people found them to be too hard to use, and both kind of flopped.
While there were a number of phones that did get half way decent browsers to work, the iPhone was the first one where they got the mobile internet experience right (a combination of a pretty good browser, a full size screen and apps for specific tasks). In the same way that in the period 1998-2000 Motorola and Eriksson were playing catchup to Nokia, so in the period 2007-2009 everyone was trying to get something to match the iPhone.
So, I think the next thing to happen will be that in about 2 years' time the phone companies will start trying to find the next big thing, and produce a whole bunch of new features that nobody really likes, until the next big thing comes along. It's anyone's guess what that killer app will be.
If we look at the previous big steps, namely SMS and internet apps, they were both, in essence, bringing functionality normally associated with the home into your pocket. SMS being analogous to email, and the iPhone experience analogous to a proper computer internet connection. Now the trouble is, there isn't really anything we can do at home or in the office that wen can't do with our phones. Now if I thought I knew what that big idea would be, I'd be off to the patent office rather than posting it online.
Companies pinned their hopes on WAP and then MMS to be the next big thing, but on the small monochrome screens of the early WAP phones (eg Nokia 7110) and the really low resolution colour screens of the first MMS able phones (recall the Sony Eriksson T68i with the clip on camera) meant people found them to be too hard to use, and both kind of flopped.
While there were a number of phones that did get half way decent browsers to work, the iPhone was the first one where they got the mobile internet experience right (a combination of a pretty good browser, a full size screen and apps for specific tasks). In the same way that in the period 1998-2000 Motorola and Eriksson were playing catchup to Nokia, so in the period 2007-2009 everyone was trying to get something to match the iPhone.
So, I think the next thing to happen will be that in about 2 years' time the phone companies will start trying to find the next big thing, and produce a whole bunch of new features that nobody really likes, until the next big thing comes along. It's anyone's guess what that killer app will be.
If we look at the previous big steps, namely SMS and internet apps, they were both, in essence, bringing functionality normally associated with the home into your pocket. SMS being analogous to email, and the iPhone experience analogous to a proper computer internet connection. Now the trouble is, there isn't really anything we can do at home or in the office that wen can't do with our phones. Now if I thought I knew what that big idea would be, I'd be off to the patent office rather than posting it online.
A lot of the iPhone smoothness we all love comes from the GPU doing most of the GUI work.
Android phones currently use the CPU for everything, leaving the GPU mostly idle.
Many android phones have a GPU that's a good or better than the iPhone's,
but it isn't really used, largely due to keeping compatibility with older android phones.
Is full GPU acceleration coming to android in gingerbread (3.0) ?
Interesting discussion here:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914
Android phones currently use the CPU for everything, leaving the GPU mostly idle.
Many android phones have a GPU that's a good or better than the iPhone's,
but it isn't really used, largely due to keeping compatibility with older android phones.
Is full GPU acceleration coming to android in gingerbread (3.0) ?
Interesting discussion here:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914
There are 4 iphone killers on the market already
EVO4G
Droid Incredible
Droid X
Samsung Galaxy S
With more to come
Droid 2
HTC Vision - 1st Dual core processor
EVO4G
Droid Incredible
Droid X
Samsung Galaxy S
With more to come
Droid 2
HTC Vision - 1st Dual core processor
I think from a production/marketing standpoint, Apple has the advantage in a streamlined simple product. Take Southwest Airlines for example, they are a rock solid airline because they kept it simple. They only fly one model of plane and in turn only have to deal with production/maintenance etc with that model.
It may or may not keep them on the front line of technology, but only having and marketing one type of phone definitely turns a good profit for Apple.
Something to think about..
