iPhone Killer

We all know what happened to the smartphone world when Apple first unveiled the all touchscreen phone in 2007. Before the iPhone, the total number of all touchscreen phone was 1 (LG Prada). After the iPhone, the total number of all touchscreen phone equals gazillion. Now, it’s almost impossible to find any phone manufacturer without an touchscreen model.

But, do you know what it also did to the price of all the smartphones? Initially, the original iPhone was quite expensive at $599. Then, when it launched 3G model in 2008, they reduced it down to $199 and that magic price has stuck for a very long time. In order for any other phones to compete, they cannot price their phone above $199 even for a brand new phone that have more expensive features than iPhone. They just can’t. Of course, I’m only referring to the phones that are subsidized by the carriers for signing minimum 2 year contract with data services. Only the unlocked phones are priced higher.

Whether you like it or not, Apple and its iPhones had significant impact on the wireless industry. And for the consumers. Before the iPhone, not many people were willing to pay $30 on top of their voice plan for the data. Now, it’s very common for people to have unlimited data plan. And because of all the data that people use, carriers are forced to upgrade their infrastructure.

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We had reported yesterday that Apple had filed lawsuit against HTC over its 20 patents. Today, we have learned that even though Google is not mentioned in the lawsuit itself, the suit really is targeted at Google who sells Nexus One phone manufactured by HTC. And here is Google coming to back up HTC even though they are not the one being sued.

“We are not a party to this lawsuit,” the Mountain View, California, company said in a statement. “However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

HTC is not a small company but relative to the sizes of Google and Apple, it’s small. So, why is HTC fighting Apple and Google’s war? Google used to the preferred partner of Apple. Google’s CEO used to be on Apple’s board. That has all changed when Google started making their own OS called Android and started selling their own phone, Nexus One, running the Android OS. Apple in return have decided to cut out Google as the default search engine on iPhones, and even bought a mobile advertising company to compete against Google.

Two big guys fighting over the market. Nothing new. What I’m interested in is, why are they using HTC to fight their war?

Today, Apple has filed patent law suits against another iPhone Killer maker, HTC. Apple claims HTC is using 20 of Apple patents. Apple is also in patent suit in Nokia, another iPhone Killer maker and the world’s largest cell phone maker.

What do you read into this? Apple is no stranger to law suits but would they go after a company that they feel zero threat to their bottom line or only those who can actually steal some of their potential customers? I’m thinking more of the latter. HTC has been putting out model after model that have some unique features not yet found in Apple’s own iPhones, which only gets refreshed once a year. I’d say Apple is feeling the heat from the competition.

The CDMA version of Google Nexus One is headed to Verizon. Here is the link to FCC site for the filing.

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=610626&fcc_id=%27NM8PB99300%27

This is very interesting since Verizon already has Motorola DROID as its first Android based phone. Will the users stay with Motorola DROID or will they opt for Nexus One, which is superior spec in every sense, instead?

What do you think?

It seems all the big boys of cell phone guys have their own OS. Research In Motion was the first with their own OS on all their Blackberries, while others used Windows Mobile. Nokia used Symbian, and later purchased the company. Apple, of course, makes their own Apple OS to run on all their iPhones. Palm has their own webOS. Sony Ericsson has used Microsoft’s Windows Mobile initially but also is venturing out to using Google’s Android. Motorola, under the new CEO, is betting the company on Android. Samsung, who has used both Windows Mobile and Android, is coming out with their own OS called bada. LG, who typically follows Samsung in many ways, also have phones using Windows Mobile and Android, but they are not following Samsung when it comes to creating their own OS.

What is your favorite OS?