 It's an obvious statement to make but the iPhone has set a benchmark in the mobile phone industry. This phone more than any other has that "Wow" factor which means if you see someone using it, you instantly want to grab it off them and play with it.
Younghee Jung (a senior design manager at Nokia) predicts that by 2012 fifty per cent of the world will own a mobile phone (more than any other electronic device). This wireless penetration means that it is becoming increasingly important to target existing customers with new and improved technologies/devices.
The iPhone has led the way with this by combining a slick and simple user interface with a series of applications that are in constant development (see 3B's article on Recommended Apps and Settings). The iPhone requires a lot of in-phone-back-end technology in terms of its memory, a powerful CPU, a great display and loads of software. As the iPhone sets the precedence, then other manufacturers will start to make these advances in software/hardware standard in all phones.
The iPhone has become a great motivator for its competitors to improve the performance of hand held devices. There is a definite trend of the convergence of mobile phones and a PC. Using and browsing the internet at desktop speeds from the palm of your hand is no longer a thing of dreams. In a year or two, all handhelds will be much faster and contain better features that are way beyond the normal speed of evolution.
We saw the number of customers of the iPhone increase further after the launch of the IPhone 3G in June 2008. In the US the number of customers porting into AT&T increased by 97% in June 2008, reaching a level 12% higher than the original iPhone launch in 2007.
Orange has praised the impact of Apple's iPhone by saying that "the 3G product has widened the interest in the market for all smartphones". Its popularity however may inadvertently be benefiting the competition. The iPhone was the first product of its kind to test the water but it is Apple's competitors that can learn from its results.
New research predicts that the smartphone market will grow from around 10% of total handset sales in 2007 to 31% in 2013 driven by the "iPhone effect". Features set to become a way of life for mobile phones include touch screens/touch pads and accelerometers. These accelerometers mean that you can interact with your phone through tilting, shock sensing, as well as integrated social networking features.
There are two potential "iPhone Killers" that are currently being developed, the Blackberry Storm and the G1 Google phone. We will have to wait and see how well they do but I can see the iPhone developing a tried and tested brand image that will mean that they will dominate the market for some time to come.
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