2 billion applications have been downloaded for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the iPhone has achieved about 1% of the global market for mobile phones. These are great achievements, and it’s easy to see why the iPhone has become so popular. Compared to its predecessors it’s revolutionary, a clear advance, and it’s transforming the market for mobile devices.
The future doesn’t necessarily belong to Apple and the iPhone, though. While the device has changed attitudes, and massively increased the use of the mobile Internet, it could well be the other devices that have followed in its path that end up dominant.
I’m sure Apple will continue to innovate, but the iPhone is now into an incremental improvement phase, and I’m particularly interested in where Google’s Android phones go for the next phase of innovation.
The iPhone is available in 1 size. It’s made by 1 company, who absolutely control what you can and can’t put onto it. It doesn’t fit in a shirt pocket, and I know people who carry a bag now just because they own an iPhone. Long-term, can one company with one device really compete with what Google are putting together?
First of all, we have many manufacturers today making Google phones. HTC dominate, but there are a host of manufacturers following behind. All the UK networks can offer you one, and they’re in all different shapes and sizes. The iPhone is £950 SIM free, if you were daft enough to buy one. You can get a Google phone for £200 nowadays, that will fit in your back pocket if you don’t want to carry a bag. And it has GPS, and it has thousands of applications, and all that. It isn’t locked down like an iPhone, either.
Of course Palm are coming along with their Pre as well, and Windows Mobile will update soon. But I think the main beneficiary of the iPhone long term will be Google and the Android. In the long-term, I think the attitude change because of the iPhone will be a lot bigger than its market share ever gets.
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