Last week, at the 3GSM World Congress conference in Barcelona, the CEO of Symbian welcomed the Apple iPhone’s move into the US market. Nigel Clifford, the CEO of Symbian, stated:
“The American marketplace is an underdeveloped marketplace for smartphones. This could educate the American consumer that there is more that you can do with a phone than treat it as an email device.”
This view has also been shared by a Nokia executive in the past. Will the iPhone revolutionize the cell phone market as Apple claims it will? To a certain extent yes it will, especially in the US considering how far behind the US is with cellular technology. Many of my friends know about my disappointments with the services offered by US carriers and the phones offered by carriers here in the US in comparison to what is offered by carriers in Europe and MENA. Hopefully the iPhone will help drive carriers to implement new mobile services here in the US, and will help drive the general US population to start thinking differently about smartphones.
At today’s MacWorld Steve Jobs introduced the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone. During the iPhone introduction, Jobs stated that the iPhone is going to be another revolutionary device released by Apple. The iPhone is going to redefine the way smartphones operate and according to Jobs is five years ahead of its time, while acting as the most advanced iPod, a revolutionary phone, and a breakthrough internet device.
A look at the way the market reacted in terms of this “futuristic” device is pretty interesting. Motorola (NYSE:MOT) who produces the Motorola Q smartphone, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) who produces enterprise phones and multimedia phones, based off of the Symbian OS, Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) who produces the Treo line of smartphones, and Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) who produces the Blackberry line of professional communications devices, all acted negatively to the news of the Apple iPhone.
Additionally Apple, will be dropping the word “computer” form Apple Computer, Inc. and will become known as Apple, Inc. as they move deeper into the consumer electronics market.
