Can OS X iPhone Compete In The World Marketplace?
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Considering that it has pretty much been established that the iPhone is a total and complete failure in Japan amongst other Asian markets, suddenly there is uncertainty as to how it will do throughout the world market. Despite this concern, the iPhone continues to do very well here in North America.
But the big question remains: can the iPhone make a real impression on the world wide market place on a global scale? In my mind, not likely. Here is why. First of all, we must understand that in other parts of the world, Symbian continues lead the platform wars with most mobile users. Yes, it is not as “sexy” as OS X or does it provide any level of functionality that could possibly match up with OS X’s abilities. Yet at the same time, it does what most people want - SMS, phone calls and simple mobile games. Bundle this with the fact that the platform has been out there a lot longer and I believe we see OS X for the iPhone at a significant disadvantage.
Bundle all of this with the fact that in places like Japan, there are phones that make the iPhone look about as advanced as a portable phone from the ’80’s and you find a mobile platform that is going to likely be limited to Western nations at best, North America at worst.
3 Comments
Steve
April 2nd, 2009
at 5:34pm
Symbian doesn’t provide the level of functionality of the iPhone? Are you kidding me? I have an iTouch, a Nokia E71, a Nokia E90 and then my work WinMo phone. I have friends with a full iPhone and am fully not impressed.
Excluding a touch interface, there is nothing the iPhone does that hasn’t been available on a Symbian platform for a lot longer. And given Nokia, Samsung and LG all have touch based phones using the S60v5 interface now, even a touch interface is nothing great anymore.
Accellerometer, GPS, and more are standard on most Symbian based phones. The range of applications for Symbian phones makes the iPhone’s list of apps look like nothing more than a toy.
MMS, Copy and Paste, MULTITASKING are all features that have existed on Symbian platforms for a decade or so now. Video calling has existed since 3G started showing up in Europe and Asia.
To say that Symbian doesn’t provide the functionality of the iPhone is just ludicrous and shows a complete ignorance of what the platform really is. It may not be as “sexy” to you, but I beg to differ on that front as well. You can skin/theme the S60 platforms (all versions) any time, yet to do something similar requires you jailbreak your iPhone first. Which technically voids your warranty.
The way Apple control’s the iPhone and its abilities makes the platform nothing more than a very fancy Featurephone with lots of 3rd party software available. To call it a true smartphone… Well, even the 3.0 upgrade still hasn’t caught up with the S60 feature set yet.
The ONLY thing that iPhone has over any S60/Symbian device is iTunes App Store. But given the amount of third party stores you can buy (or freely download) Symbian software from, such as handango.com, even that isn’t a big deal.
Sorry Chris, but you’re way off the mark on this one. The iPhone is a fancy toy with a pretty GUI. Feature for Feature, its still a long way behind Symbian S60 devices.
Matt Hartley
April 3rd, 2009
at 11:25am
Steve: Got to watch the name appearing next to articles - It’s Matt, not Chris. ;)
Steve
April 6th, 2009
at 4:16pm
Sorry Matt. Chris posted the link and I didn’t pay attention beyond the appearance. I do apologise.