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I have loved this marketing accident of the iPhone killer statement, being branded about by varying marketing and PR firms in a vein attempt to get users on their client’s newest mobile/Smartphone. Inadvertently they are propagating the extreme success of the iPhone in one sentence and furthering their success by motioning that they are the one to beat and therefore the best. Who do they think they are working for?
If I were a mobile phone company CEO and my latest launch was imminent and I reviewed the literature of the PR or marketing company I had hired, to find the words “iPhone killer” anywhere in the text, I think I would throw them from my building, preferably from the top floor!
To truly beat the phenomenon of the iPhone you will need the following ingredients:
1. A mobile that does not hang i.e. is responsive upon every touch
a. iPhone’s single task functionality gave them something no one has ever delivered. An OS that waits for you!
2. Touch screen and fluid animation
3. MOST IMPORTANTLY! A massive development community
That’s it, that is the recipe. So far the competitors have been clunky, slow and with worse graphics than the iPhone. They have tried to woo the community with free music or cheap phones. Users don’t care about buying the phone, and the fact that an iPhone costs users $300 upwards shows them this. Get the recipe right and they will come.
In my mind there are only two companies in the world that can become greater than the iPhone or be the, dare I say it “iPhone killer” (there, I said it). They are, Google and Microsoft. It’s obvious; these two companies don’t make mobiles natively. I hear you scream, “why these two companies”, because they are content providers, that’s why. All other mobile companies predominantly make hardware, but not these two. Apple succeeded because they had a great product AND the Apple store waiting to pump iPhone's full of content. Google have the most content in the world and the development community to buy into developing apps for their phones. Microsoft however have a great deal of content, but and that’s a big BUT, they have the development world at their feet. They deliver brilliant dev environments and software and can tap into the biggest market share of developers and existing OS’s the world has ever seen. They are currently pumping money into the development community to get people like me to start writing apps for their new Mobile 7 software. This OS has badly needed an overhaul for years and I think their timing is just about right. They will stand on the shoulders of the iPhone experience and providing their phone is a responsive and pretty to use, they will match and probably go beyond the content that Apple has created within a few years (not instantly, but watch the wave form when they launch).
Google are a great contender, but hey everyone wants to make money, not just Google and they focus on free too much for the development community to invest their time and effort to Google own success, rather than perhaps their own. However Microsoft will soon have courses and exams and business software and links to exchange and encryption and contracts with the government etc…..
My money is on Microsoft; watch out for Windows Mobile 7!
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