Smart Phone Wars: Apple vs. RIM vs. ...the Android Operating System? [Telecom]

Smart Phone Wars: Apple vs. RIM vs. ...the Android Operating System?

By Paul Carton April 1, 2008

The release of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone rocked the cellular industry last year, and some analysts are now asking if the pending release of Google's (GOOG) Android cellular phone operating system may have a similar impact.

The answer: Not likely.

According to a March 17-24 ChangeWave survey of 3,597 consumers, the smart phone industry continues to transform into a two-horse race between Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone.

While RIM currently dominates smart phone sales among consumers, the Apple iPhone has had tremendous success and continues showing momentum in this market. Meanwhile, the longstanding woes of Palm (PALM) and its Treo are accelerating.

...

formatting link

***** Moderator's Note *****

I haven't bought a Blackberry or an iPhone, and I probably won't buy the Google version, either. What gets my goat with these products is how they're not content to sell me a device, but instead demand that I subscribe to a "service" provided by someone they're in bed with, and pay a monthly fee for the rest of my life when I'd be perfectly content to do without mobile email and just have an address book.

It seems to me that every company in the consumer market is drooling at the thought of getting an annuity from every product they sell, be it a "service contract" or an "extended warranty" or email forwarding to a cell phone. Nobody wants to sell _things_ anymore: they want to attach themselves to my bank account and automatically withdraw tribute like an electronic leach that I can never remove.

I'm still stuck in the "dark ages" of having a separate Palm Pilot and an ordinary cell phone, but I'm content with it because I'll be damned if I contribute to someone's retirement annuity just to get an address book built into the phone.

Bill Horne Temporary Moderator

(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)

Reply to
Monty Solomon
Loading thread data ...

Assuming I understand you correctly, I feel exactly the same way... which is why I bought a Motorola RAZR and, using Motorola Phone Tools, synchronize my contacts between my computer and my telephone. No data plan with the associated costs. It's no Palm Pilot, so I don't recommend it for people who want a serious PDA, but it means that I don't have to type all my phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and appointments into my phone. It also means that I won't lose that list if I lose or break my phone.

Also, although I can understand that mobile operators would want to sell you a data plan and would assume that you'd want one, but I'm surprised that there is not a company out there somewhere that will sell you a PDA/phone combo (e.g. Treo) with just a voice plan.

Reply to
Geoffrey Welsh

Well that's what Verizon sold me although they seemed totally puzzled by my having the Palm Treo and not wanting any of their enhanced services. The salesman finally got the idea when I began carefully annunciating the word "no" in response to each successive query. He started to look annoyed but I said I was beginning to think he didn't understand me when I said "no" the first time. The amusement flashed across his eyes and he relaxed and finished the transaction fairly quickly. I was doing him a favor, you see, by not letting him waste his selling time on a 'no sale' result. I give him plus marks for appreciating the courtesy I was showing him. The true robots get annoyed and stay annoyed.

Reply to
Tom Horne

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.