Since the first announcement about the I-phone and its revolutionary touch screen technology in Jan 2007, there have been rave reviews about how touch screen phone interface designs will evolve, changing the way people communicate.
Although this is the first time Apple launches its first phone design, many analysts have already cited I-Phone as “the prototype to the future of mobile phones.†Because of Apple’s new entry to the mobile phone market now, major phone makers like Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Samsung and Motorola are taking precautions against Apple’s mobile phone entry, working hard to maintain their market share. They too, have since been researching on touch screen technology, and trying to incorporate it with other value added features to develop their own brand of touch screen mobile phones, as seen above.
In order to compete with Apple iPhone sales when it launches in other countries in Jan 2008, Asian phones makers like Samsung and Sony have included more high-technology features and slim line components to enhance their touch screen phone designs. For example, Samsung’s Ultra Smart F700, has included features like a slide down QWERTY keypad, other than the touch screen phone design, to enable interchangeability. As for Sony Walkman W960i, they have incorporated a very innovative Music Recognition Track ID System, which enables easy recognition of songs on air, and also TV-quality screening on the hand phone. On top of that, Sony-Ericsson is intending to expand its market share for low and mid-range phones to attract the market. This shows good evidence of how Asian phone makers are grabbing this opportunity to compete aggressively in sales.
Source: www.todayonline.com (13th Jul 2007)
Instead, the world’s current No.1 and No.2 phone makers, have not taken much realistic steps to commercialize a “power-packed phone design†to compete with I-phone in time, as compared to both Sony and Samsung. While Nokia has already conceptualized a very beautiful and sleek touch-screen phone called Aeon, the launch of this concept phone will probably not be anytime soon to match the launch of Apple’s I-phone design in a few months’ time. Motorola, likewise, has not added any other significant features into their designs to repackage its overall look as a “touch screen’ phone design.
Source: www.todayonline.com (13th Jul 2007)
So even as Apple’s mobile phone competitors are promoting their mobile phone designs with greater feature enhancements and more affordable costing, analysts are somehow still doubtful whether the other phones will succeed in the market. Because Apple has successfully created a strong brand recognition with their award winning I-Mac, I-Pod and I-Book designs, therefore Apple’s easy usability and signature design outlook, as seen in I-Phone, is already a design icon that most consumers can identify with very well. Therefore, many people may still want to buy it no matter what.
In fact, when Apple iPod was launched after Creative launched their Nomad MP3 players. Back then; Creative could never have foreseen how far Apple’s iPod sales would have leapt tremendously. Even though Creative has a strong in-house team of engineers and design team to come up with numerous MP3 designs, they were still not able to compete with Apple’s iPod sales. This clearly shows how Apple’s marketing strategy has worked well with their focus in strong design and branding consistency.
So how will the touch screen phone competition between Apple and the other developed mobile phone companies be? Time will tell who will emerge victorious.
