I’m sure by know that everybody on the face of this planet with maybe the exception of some remote native people in south America have already heard about Apples upcoming and undeniably sexy iPhone, while of course the Apple faithful have been riled up into a religious furor over their perceived unchallenged brilliance of Steve Jobs, many of us have already seen the bigger picture and believe that Apples entry into this space will not go unchallenged, unlike the mp3 player space that had wallowed in a sort of coma like lack of creativity, especially from Sony which seemed content to roll over like a wounded animal and let a more creative competitor like Apple come in and eventually dominate the space.
Early on it became obvious to almost anyone with a clearer view and not mired in the after effect of the Steve Jobs reality distortion field that Apple would not have such and easy time in this market which is dominated by nothing but sharks that have over time consumed all the minnows.
This won’t be a repeat of the mp3 space where almost every company that appears to have tried to challenge Apple seemed to be making a have hearted attempt To enter into this space and establish itself as a credible alternative to Apple, or waited way to Long (Microsoft ) to enter this space with the kind of resources that would be necessary establish a credible alternative.
The first sign of this upcoming battle for Apple seems to have appeared from
LG in the form of its new Prada phone that appears to closely resemble the iPhone, but will appear 4 months earlier and will be available in Europe before the iPhone where Apple hopes to make a big splash.
This is even covered in greater depth by
Rob Enderle who paints a very clear picture of this coming battle, even now though there’s no denying that Apple will in a sense redefine certain aspects of the industry that others will have to match , for one I think that Apple will certainly make embedded OS’s easier to use, Microsoft has to struggle with the Catch 22 of having to work with wireless vendors that insist on limiting the user experience of the product so that it will work well within their own respective business models.
Only time will tell if Apple can be successful at it latest ventures, in some way it saddens me to think that Apple may see this is a more lucrative market to pursue than the PC market that has become hyper competitive and where thin profit margins have become the norm, the Cupertino based company may see limited growth and in some way has decided that it needs to move on to a larger more lucrative market.
In the end it seems that Apple may be trying to model itself after Sony which in itself isn’t such a bad thing, as long as it can stay away from the pratfalls which have plagued Sony over the last few years, Apple with its own superior sense of Style could be the next big player in the consumer electronics space. with apple hiring game programmers and new interface designers, it may be positioning itself to enter other markets as well, such as plasma TV’s and home media entertainment centers, this will be interesting because this is already a very competitive space already occupied with very credible competitors and an area where Microsoft has begun to establish itself in.
Regardless Apple will and is a viable player that while I don’t believe is always the winner or the best solution to the answer, brings a sense of style to an industry that seems to lack the kind of vision that inspires legions of fans to flock into a frenzy of its newest product introductions like no other company has ever before.
