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June 11, 2008

Here’s what some wireless industry analysts have to say on Apple's new 3G iPhone that AT&T started selling yesterday:

Kevin Burden, director of Mobile Devices at ABI Research said "Apple's new iPhone is one of those disruptive pieces of technology that first raised the bar for consumer-oriented smartphones and is now looking to meet the expectations of some enterprise users."

"While all the hype clearly outstrips the actual impact it has had on the mobile phone market, the iPhone's influence over similar competing hardware is undeniable. It has been challenging for competitors to deliver wireless products that rise to the expectations the iPhone is creating, without appearing to chase the innovations of a vendor that holds less than half a percent of the worldwide phone market," added Burden.

Analyst Jeff Kagan noted that Samsung’s newly announced Omnia phone should be a solid competitor, but he also added that many hot new devices have been introduced by different manufacturers since September 2007. For example, the Omnia has a 5-megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-Fi connectivity, among other features. RIM also has its first launch of a touchscreen device coming soon, Kagan added.

Steven Hartley, senior analyst at Ovum, points out that even though the price is lower on the new iPhone, the price plan details associated with the 3G device were not revealed. Given that they are 3G rather than EDGE, it is likely they will be more expensive, so the total cost of ownership of the new iPhone could remain prohibitive to many, he said.

There was a lot of emphasis on the enterprise at yesterday’s launch, with support of Exchange and Cisco’s VPN. However, not everyone is convinced Apple will be a significant player in the enterprise space, which should reassure BlackBerry supplier Research In Motion (RIM). “We imagine that using iTunes to synchronize enterprise applications would make most IT departments quake with fear!,” Hartley said in his statement.

Charles Born, vice president of corporate communications at Amdocs said “what Apple is doing with the iPhone is the main reason why wireless service providers need to transform themselves. It’s akin to when Starbuck’s, Peet’s and others got into coffee. Suddenly, coffee wasn’t just a morning ritual like brushing your teeth-- it became a real experience in itself! The notion of a 50-cent cup at the corner coffee shop quickly became antiquated."

He added "so with a device that provides a customer experience like the iPhone only getting better, service providers have a choice – they can either work on transforming the experience they bring in the form of cooler applications and better service, or they can go the way of the corner coffee shop. The companies we work with every day are out to challenge Apple, not let them take over,” said Born.

“Similar to Apple’s strategy, Synchronica recently announced a major deal with a leading Chinese device manufacturer to offer hosted push e-mail and synchronization service for the Chinese market. However, in contrast to Apple’s approach, Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway is based on open industry standards and works with the vast majority of smartphones and mass-market mobile phones, without requiring additional client software to be installed on the device. This makes Mobile Gateway a compelling choice for service providers (both mobile operators and device manufacturers) if they want to offer a MobileMe for the rest of us,” said Diana N. Belden of Synchronica, an international provider of mobile e-mail and sync solutions.

"Soon, open source software (read: free) will be available when iPhone 2.0 ships and when the "App Store" opens, scheduled for next month. In contrast to MobileMe announced yesterday, Funambol said its myFUNAMBOL provides free syncing of PIM data and mobile e-mail for mass-market users. When the new Funambol iPhone open source software ships in July, it will initially sync contacts, followed by a version that also syncs calendars and notes. Funambol’s original iPhone open source app was downloaded more than 100,000 times," said Pierre Thibault of Funambol, a provider of Mobile 2.0 messaging software powered by open source software.

Given the chance, many of AT&T's direct competitors used yesterday's iPhone announcement to draw attention to their own products and services, and that's fully understandable.

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Source: W.I.N.