I saw a post over at Boy Genius Report earlier on the Samsung Jet and the fact that it apparently has over 2 million pre-orders. It got me thinking about ‘smartphone wars’ amongst all the leading manufacturers and platforms, and I ended up in a very good discussion about it over at the EIC forums, with aggieman, swagger, acosmichippo, and several other cool forum members.
That discussion spurred a quick thought – not a new one for me, but more a solidifying of a very old one – on smartphones and what will really win the day eventually amongst all the various platforms and models.
For me, here’s what it comes down to, as I posted over at EIC:
I really think better / faster / prettier / fancier hardware will come and it will go – sometimes iPhone will be at or near the top in that area, often it won’t – but the real decider for me in all of this is OS / Platform / Apps. In that area, nobody is going to hold a candle to iPhone OS.
That Jet, which hardware-wise looks quite impressive, is just instantly uninteresting to me, because in my view it’s running a ‘Sunset OS’ – an OS whose best times are well behind it now.
I know many of you may disagree, and feel that Blackberry or Palm’s Pre and WebOS, or even Windows Mobile will compete strongly with or even surpass the iPhone.
I just can’t see that. I believe the power of the iPhone OS, the usability and overall user experience, and the range and power of the apps on this platform will keep it far ahead for a long time to come.
Anyway, that’s my quick recycled / newly solidified thought for the day. Fire away with the counter arguments. 
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
"I believe the power of the iPhone OS" sounds a bit on the religious side. While iPhone is still tops in my book, WebOS has a solid chance of catching up if Apple slacks on the new features like they did with the GS.
Anon – I certainly didn't mean for that to sound at all religious. I could say I'm a great believer in the power of travel as a great educator, just as a quick example, hopefully without having any religious angle to it.
Agree, I purchased en E90 when it first came out after owning a 2g iPhone. And it had all the features from full keyboard, HSDPA, large screen 3.2 MP camera, video recording to power full processor GPS etc… And after less then a week I sold it to get another 2G iPhone, then I got a 3g iPhone and now planning to get 3gs and no plans to get any other brands in the future coz no matter what feature they add in the are just un usable.
Hi Seven – LOL – that's pretty much how I envisage the Jet being.
Yes. much of what people love about OS X (features, utility, predictable UI concepts, etc.) has been employed and embellished on the iPhone OS. And just like most Mac owners, people are seeing that while some other hardware may have better specs, iPhone owners, I imagine, are realizing they would likely miss the well-thought out UI design, usability, and integration of most Apple products.
But it looks like some of the hardware manufacturers are starting to realize the importance of good software in the usefulness of their hardware, like Intel's recent Moblin initiative and purchase of Wind River.
I think that's true about the hardware manufacturers – but I also think it represents such a sea change for most / all of them that it will be a good while before they catch up, if ever.
I agree with the first part of your comment – it's not just about the hardware if there isn't a top shelf OS, platform and App catalog. However, I don't think it is a foregone conclusion that Apple / iPHone will win the day.
Windows Mobile, Symbian and Blackberry OS are a joke and look to be for the near future.
WebOS and Android are in the game.
The next few years should be fun to watch.
I say this as a holder of many shares of Apple, Inc. and a very happy iPhone owner.
Agree that WebOS and Android seem the two to watch out of all the rival platforms. Neither seems to have emerged with anywhere near as much momentum as the iPhone OS, but of course that doesn't mean that can't change in future.
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