Why the iPhone's Competition Fails (Before it Even Begins)

Everyone knows the iPhone is the most amazing phone ever made. OK, I may be a bit biased, but it honestly completely revolutionized what people do with their phones and how they do them. At the risk of sounding like a commercial, you can google a restaurant (either through an app or the actual google website), read the website on the restaurant, and call the restaurant and make reservations through the internet. This is massive step forward from normal phones. It is like Web 2.0 in a way, where one can access any information they need to access instantaneously and use the information they've gathered to make other decisions. This is why people love the iPhone. Because it is more than a phone, it's basically a computer in the palm of your hand.

However, there is another reason people lurv the iPhone. The brand. Apple is the cool thing to love. Having anything apple automatically makes one hip, trendy, and nonconformist. (Because, back in the 90's, Microsoft was the big bad wolf that was suffocating the younger up-start companies, like Apple. Now, Apple is almost as big as Microsoft. Those who are trying to nonconform by using Apple are actually still conforming by using Apple. The only way to nonconform is to either not use a computer, or use third party software/browsers/etc. But that's another blog entry.) People buy iPods because that is what everyone from ages 10-50 has. No one buys a Zune. People buy Macs because they think Macs are the hip thing to do, even though most of the claims Apple makes about the security of Macs are largley untrue. This is the second reason people buy an iPhone: to be cool. To fit in.

The iPhone has basically cornered the market on smart phones. There are many other smart phones out there, but Apple does it better. Verizon, however, seeks to change all this.They have recently started marketing their "Droid." Their ad campaign focuses on what the iPhone doesn't do (it does have some faults - we just got picture messaging last month, though that was largely AT&T's fault) and it could use some improvement. Verizon's "Droid" (made by Motorola) promises the ability to have a physical keyboard (some think the iPhone's touch screen keyboard is too finicky; I personally love it) as well as the ability to run multiple apps. These are all valid points, that I'm sure Apple is working on addressing, but are they really important enough to make consumers drop Apple/iPhone, a well established brand and product, for something completely new and untested? Some also feel that this was a bad move on Verizon's part, severing any ties they hoped to have with Apple and ending any dreams of having a Verizon iPhone. People are defensive of Apple; launching a direct assault on the "underdog" may not prove to be a smooth marketing move.

The Verizon "Droid", image courtesy of slashgear.com

I read an article in Time a few months ago about the market for a smartphone. This article mentions how, instead of giving Apple direct competition, some phone manufacturers should focus on a less "smart" smartphone. Basically, there should be a stepping stone for those who may not be the most technologically advanced between a normal phone, such as the Razor or Envy, and smart phones. There is not a smart phone like this on the market now, and it might prove to be a lucrative area. This may be a chance for another company to make worthwhile amounts of money on a smart phone. Companies must adapt instead of trying to copy. Apple is currently the Leviathan of the smart phone market, and nothing is going to change that for a very long time.