Alright, remember when I promised I wouldn’t write a second take on the iPhone until I got a personal experience with it? I apologize for the fact that I couldn’t hold back, it’s just much too fun to predict these trends.

First off, the iPhone has now sold over 700,000 units. I can’t truly compare it to the most popular handhelds like the Motorola Razr, given the difference in time (the Razr was released when, like three years ago?). With the Razr selling well over 50-million units though, I’m not sure the iPhone can match that; we will really have to wait for the two major booms – the school season in fall, and the Christmas present season in winter (although I’m not sure that’s the correct professional vocabulary).

Source: http://handcellphone.com/wp-content/themes/green-marinee/phonepic/Motorola-RAZR-V3-Lime-6.jpg

Many see the iPhone sales as disappointing, but I don’t think of it so much a disappointment – I wasn’t expecting the iPhone to sell like hotcakes. I am surprised that the legion of iPhone-killers haven’t been released yet; I figured that manufacturers would want to slay the beast before another iPod episode happens; which brings me to my next point.

The iPod had implemented a laptop hard drive with a unique GUI when it was first released – it was pretty much the best digital audio player on the market six years ago, with a massive five gigabytes of storage (wowzers, that was almost unheard of)! It claimed to fit “a thousand songs in your pocket”, and it probably could – as long as your songs were 2.5 megabytes or smaller (possible, considering it was back then..). The iPhone isn’t really the top dog of the market though – also it is quite commercially successful so far, its specifications can be easily matched or even overpowered by the muscle phones. In a modern english, it’s an “average” phone.

Ever since the iPhone launch, I’ve also been following another story, which involves Research In Motion (RIM), the famous designer of the ever-so-popular Blackberry devices. Surprisingly enough, the iPhone release hasn’t really dented their sales; in fact, a couple of weeks later, Blackberry sales began rising higher! Apparently, friends of iPhone customers wanted a device that could “show the iPhone up”. I don’t blame them – the iPhone isn’t too hard to beat, and the Blackberry series of phones could be the ones to do it. After all, with a solid customer core in the business industry, as well as pretty regular consumers eying the Blackberry Pearl or Curve with interest, RIM doesn’t need to worry about the iPhone due to the major difference in target audiences.

Source: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/070503/070503_curve_front.widec.jpg

Apparently, the iPhone is also set for a debut in Europe – the delay is due to the integration of 3g technology (as European consumers rely heavily on). Alas, the sooner they integrate 3g into the iPhone, the better – the iPhone internet experience receives mixed reviews from their customers. I watched an interview on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/video/vs?id=RTGAM.20070724.wviphone24 , where I also got a chunk of information, and the interviewee describes the iPhone EDGE experience as “horrific”, and the wi-fi experience pretty much likewise. Again, it’s not too surprising, but I’m mildly concerned at how many iPhone customers will be using their internet service (pretty much all of them, I’m guessing). I can’t say that this will be a major selling point of the phone.

This brings us back to RIM, whose Blackberry devices are built to surf the internet; the consumers of RIM are probably more keen on checking their email and such, due to the high-paced speed of the business world. When I thought about the Blackberry facing off against the iPhone, I couldn’t see the iPhone actually winning, mostly due to its semi-mediocre internet speed and technology.

So could RIM be the ultimate iPhone-killer? I might’ve hinted at it a bit, but again, I highly doubt it. Their target markets are quite different, with iPhone being appealing to the general public and the Blackberry gathering their business consumers. However, I will say that RIM needs not worry about taking the iPhone down as soon as, oh – say, Motorola or Sony Ericsson due to the increase in competition.

Speaking of Motorola and Sony Ericssson, I’m surprised that they haven’t released their next myriad of phones yet; with the Razr 2 and Rizr Z8 waiting on the Motorola bench, and the w960 and k850 holding down the Sony Ericsson sidelines, I really don’t know what to expect; will the iPhone be crushed? I doubt it – the marketing campaign for the two manufacturers hasn’t exactly started yet, but unlike the iPhone, these handhelds are practically at the top of the line (well, the Sony Ericssons are, anyway).

The iPhone’s still in a very vulnerable state – not to mention, it’s not even available everywhere yet. Unfortunately, it does not look like that the iPhone will be (officially) arriving in Canada anytime soon, although I have seen some sellers putting unlocked iPhones on the market. But, we have to let the sands of time pass before seeing how successful the iPhone really is.

Source: http://www.connexion.be/blog/user/files/iphone_home.gif