I blogged last month about the
iPhone business model and stimulated huge discussion about whether the business model had sufficient longevity or whether it would have to change to survive. Over the past couple of weeks things seem to have moved very, very quickly. Firstly we had the iPhone 4 antenna debacle - leading to
iPhone 4.0 being compared to Microsoft's Vista slump. There is an element of Apple living by the media sword and dying by the media sword. When they do the smallest good thing they secure thousands of column inches in the world press. Similarly when they do something wrong they get a disproportionately savage backlash. Whatever the rights and wrongs of their dodgy antenna, it is clear that their brand has been damaged and only time will tell whether the damage is permanent or transient.
While this has been going on there has been a resultant surge in interest in Android handsets. The most significant may well be the launch of the
£99 ZTE developed Android phone. Probably plenty of technical compromises to get down to this price point, but its the sort of price point that will catapult the Android OS to billions of customers. And this then fundamentally changes the dynamics of the Apps market.
They say that a week is a long time in politics; it also seems to be a long time in the smartphone world!
Posted
07-16-2010 2:50 AM
by
Martin Creaner