COOh-Snap: Apple Competitors Still Trying to Catchup to Original 2007 iPhone 2G
During Apple’s Q4 2009 financial results conference call today, when asked about competitive smartphone platforms and devices, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook responded:
Frankly, they are really just trying to catch up with the 1st iPhone that was announced 2 years ago
While many will no doubt argue — perhaps laugh outright — at that, it’s harder to laugh at Apple’s results to date: 7.2 million more iPhones sold in the last 3 months, and half-a-billion more App Store downloads during the same period.
So was Cook just showing his swagger, setting himself up for a big takedown, or comfortably settling into a combined iPhone/iTunes/App Store offering his thinks will be tough to beat in the consumer market?
October 19th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
frankly, the way the app store approval process is going, many devs might jump ship to other platforms and could hurt apple in the long run. not to say it could happen tomorrow but things need to change if apple wants to stay on top.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Swagger, I hope. Settling comfortably is the first step towards decline and irrelevance for any tech company. (Any company, period.)
October 19th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I’m laughing right along side a lot of others at the comment Tim made. I I know he doesn’t really believe that. He must of said it for the sake of entertainment and to get a laught out of people. Hahahaha funny Tim…very funny.
October 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Hey Timmy Baby, I’ve got three characters for you: HD2. DONE!
October 19th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
If Tim was referring to SALES, I’ll give him the point.
If he was talking features, capability, or speed, well it was a Balmeresq moment and well deserving of Rene’s Coo SNAP award.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Hey Joe McG. I’ve got 3 numbers for you 974. The number of dollars it will take for you to get your little HD2.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
@Joe: Whats funny are the countless numbers that talked about the iPhone defeat by saying things like … One word, Android. Or one word, Storm. HD2 has a crutch it the fact it is Wondows Mobile. Fans of that platform are few I don’t care what the specs are. If HD2 was Android then maybe I could see your argument. windows mobile? It won’t be the phone to take on th iPhone. It will show a strong initial sale … But will die down shortle after just like EVERY highly anticipated winmo phone of the past.
October 19th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Brilliant! If you really think about it, Tim is right on the button.
October 20th, 2009 at 2:00 am
I doubt any future phone will be able to generate the hype/excitement of the original iPhone.
No doubt they are all struggling to catch up though. The HD2? lol, not even in the same ballpark!
October 20th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Wooaaa, Ballmer, get out of Cook’s body.
October 20th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Trying to catch up with the 1st iPhone huh? oh you mean the one that didn’t have MMS/Copy Paste/app store/multi-tasking/customization? Call me crazy but I believe majority of the new phones have these already. Ahh I’m sorry, I forget I’m supposed to be talking under the Apple reality distortion field.. Yes your right! The 1st gen iPhone blows all these newer phones out of the water!
October 20th, 2009 at 6:51 am
I had a Storm before I smartened up and got the 3GS. Let me tell you- RIM isn’t even close to catching the original iPhone. I’ll bet the Storm 2 turns out to be a P.O.S. as well.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Another fanboy post.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Rene you are terminated. Hasta la IPHONE baby
October 20th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Sales tell it all, no one has caught the number of original iPhone sales let alone the successors.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I SAID THIS IN THE FORUMS LAST WEEK ! HAHA
LOL. and it’s true… they are still catching up. The fourth iPhone will be another 2 years competitors will spend catching up.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:32 am
15 Applefan, are you saying that Mac OS X it’s far behind Windows?
October 20th, 2009 at 8:49 am
ughhhhh. more fan boy posts. this thing is turning into TUAW
October 20th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Yep, all us folks out here buying iPhones and using iTunes/AppStore are just lemmings who can’t think for ourselves. Those sales numbers have been created by sheer media hype and sensational reporting.
Or wait. Maybe some of us left other platforms for the iPhone’s ease of use and functionality. Maybe a neuron or two flickered and we made an informed decision.
When they sell 7.3 Million HD2s in a quarter (on a single carrier), let’s talk. Until then, the truth is in the numbers.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
To put it simple, the best-selling iPhone features since day one have been its fluid, intuitive, multi-touch User Interface and the best-in-class Web browser.
I could easily sacrifice MMS, copy-paste, video-recording and a bunch of other non-essential features in order to enjoy the UI and the Browser. Heck, iPhone was the first mobile device which allowed me to really browse the Web. Nothing compared.
Tim is absolutely right. Its only 2 years later the competition (i.e. Palm Pre) closed the gap. But even though some competitors got closer in terms of UI and browsing, the iPhone improved dramatically since then.
I don’t even mention iPod and App Store ecosystems, which are second to none.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
2 years after 1st gen iPhone and Blackberry’s UI and browser still suck even the upcoming BB Storm2 with ver. 5 OS. They are just catching up to the original iPhone.
One small step for RIM, one giant leap for Apple.
(from a former BB Curve and BB Storm owner, now iPhone convert)
October 20th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
It’s funny how ppl where saying the iPhone was behind yet ppl are some how playing catch up.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I’m still lost as to how they other phones are catching up?
If it’s sales…phones have beaten it (read: best selling phones of 2008 and best selling phones of 1/2Q2009)
If it’s features…phones have exceeded it.
Ease of use…well, maybe so. It doesn’t get much easier than a button and a picture. =|
Not an attack on the iPhone, but sometimes…people should learn to not say things. Fans and COO’s alike.
October 20th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
@Mav
I really don’t see how people always overlook a browser called Skyfire.
One of the greatest browsers to date. Funny thing is…it handled flash better than Flash handled flash. No slow downs, no crappy resizing, just fast, simple, browsing. And this was while I was using a Moto Q
October 20th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@iDavey:
Maybe we overlook it because it won’t work on an iPhone?
October 20th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
@icebike
LOL, true. I actually have Android. I just notice flaws and pluses of every platform.
And Skyfire is a HUGE plus of Symbian, WinMo, and RIM
October 20th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
@iDavey:
The point was made about web browsing when original iPhone came 2+ years ago. I don’t recall any Skyfire on Symbian phones back then (I used to have quite a few Nokia N-Series phones).
October 20th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
@ Tom; What do u expect? The name of this siteis theiphobeblog… Duh
October 20th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
@Mav but the point being mde is that all phones and such are playing catch up to the original. How are they playing catch up when their current services exceed what is in fact the original (and current)
October 20th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
@Davey:
Show me the phone, which exceeds iPhone in overall design, user interface or, say, integration with media and application services?
Of course it’s a matter of opinions but people vote for iPhone with their wallets.
BTW, I used to design mobile phones (software) myself (not for Apple) so I may be biased
October 20th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
@ 19, Jason D:
“When they sell 7.3 Million HD2s in a quarter (on a single carrier), let’s talk. Until then, the truth is in the numbers.”
What’s the link to the source that states that the iPhone sold 7.3 million devices in one quarter on A SINGLE CARRIER?
Anyway, I have to agree that people are still trying to catch up to the original iPhone. So many phones out there are striving to not have MMS, or to have a 2 MP camera with no flash. This comment would not be so laughable if he had at least been intelligent enough to mention the 3G or 3GS.
Effing douche
October 20th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
@Mav
And you are exactly right. It’s a matter of opinion with the things you mentioned.
I find Android to be a more interesting UI. Their newer phones (Lord knows not the G1) are very nice design wise, the iPhone is starting to get bland. And I find the Pre and HD2 to look far better than anything design wise.
And you say wallets, meaning sales, which brings me back to my very first post. Blackberry Curve has been the best selling smartphone for the first 2 quarters of this year. WinMo phones sold 20 million for the entire year of 2008 while iPhone sold 14 million.
Does that make WinMo or Curve better? No. Does that make Apple better. No.
That’s why I said…the comment itself is very idiotic. Nobody is catching up to the first iPhone…because a lot of companies have passed the 2nd and 3rd iPhone. The comment just oozes of ignorance from a loud mouthed COO.
October 20th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
@iDavey:
I agree that iPhone needs a re-design (which is probably coming, IMHO). I agree that some companies already “copied” most of its best-selling features (capacitive screen, multi-touch, App Store etc.). To the point, of course.
The above feature-copying is what was probably referred to as “catching up”.
Of course in terms of Megapixels or 3rd party app multitasking iPhone is still behind. But, hey, I’ll take a Ferrari without leather seats and power windows for the price of Volkswagen Jetta any day
October 20th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
@Mav:
Pick any late model Android phone. Virtually all of them meet or exceed iPhone UI, speed, flexibility, etc. etc. etc.
App store? Not so much. The iPhone rules there. But in most other areas Android clearly exceeds.
Especially in the User Interface, almost any Android phone exceeds the old Windows 3.1 desktop-full-of-icons approach that the iPhone uses. Maybe with the next iPhone OS they will progress all the way up to Windows 95 equivalence, but really, the interface is obsolete.
As for hardware, its simply a design choice to have two buttons or 6, or a whole keyboard full.
But if you can’t find anything you like better than the iPhone then by all means keep the iPhone. In the end, it really doesn’t matter to anyone but you.
If you want to branch out, you will soon have 0ver 50 choices to choose from: http://wiseandroid.com/NewsItem.aspx?category=News&path=October&itemid=
October 20th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Apparently, that link does not work, so use this Tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/yg8qgky
October 20th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I think I wanna go by an apple fanboy logic, that makes me happy because I have a better computer than an Apple since they want to go by numbers sold.
October 20th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
@icebike “Pick any late model Android phone. Virtually all of them meet or exceed iPhone UI, speed, flexibility, etc. etc. etc.”
Not sure about this. My 3GS is very fast. Maybe it’s time for TiPB to do another benchmarking round, LOL.
As for UI, there is a LOT more to UI then the home screen. But, as I mentioned, some of the iPhone features, including UI (pinch-zoom, swipe-delete, as an example) are copied already so…
And in the end, you are right, I’m enjoying my iPhone.
October 20th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
men lie and women lie but NUMBERS DONT.
anyone can jump on a blog and trash the iPhone but at the end of the day it still ***** on what these “competitors” are bringing, and that’s just the cold hard honest facts.
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
@icebike
The “desktop full of icons” approach is the best there is for a handheld device…..
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
@iDavey
“winmo PHONES sold 20 million….IPHONE sold 14million” spot the difference?
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
this statement is rendered absolutely true by the reaction of the winmo/blackberry/android/etc..users on here….oh and pre?