The iPhone has revolutionized the phone business in ease of use and elegance, but in business strategy, followers are not necessarily out of it. And since the iPhone also has some flaws, those who waited have an opportunity to improve upon it. Here are two examples.
The first comes from Toshiba, the TGO1:
- It has a 1GHz processor! That should guarantee something super snappy
- It’s just under 1cm flat, that’s seriously flat
- It has a very large 4.1 inch 800×480 screen (that’s almost up to netbook standard)
- You’ll have to wait until the summer though..(and probably go to Japan). Too bad.
The second is the M8 from Meizu (China)
- You can brush up your French reading the article 🙂
- This is a shameless iPhone clone, but a very interesting one
- It has a 3.4 inch 720×480 screen, that much sharper than the iPhone, and it should render webpages without too much scrolling
- It’s dimensions are about the same as the iPhone (hey, it’s a clone!)
- It has the same multi-touch screen, interface, and accelerometers
- The tester seemed very impressed, especially with the rework of Windows Mobile 6.0 and the snappy performance and interface
- No 3G version yet, but it will come
You never fail to astound me STP. You seem to be in tune with sooo many different disciplines. I suspect you do not spend a lot of your free time playing xbox 😉
In any event, the above phones may match or exceed the iphone in hardware and technology, but the thing that makes apple so special is their ability to provide a simple, effective and quick user experience. On top of this superior design they are somehow able to shape public opinion so that their products are perceived as “cool”.
So while other companies may provide the iphone or ipod knockoff, I don’t think they will ever be able to reach the lofty levels of apple ease of use.