With Palm announcing the new Pre, Apple announcing a new lower price iPhone 3G S, Google’s latest Android phone launch, the MyTouch 3G and the Blackberry Storm, where’s the smartphone world going? No question there’s a war out there. It seems to me that Apple, with its powerful brand presence and slavish consumer loyalty, will continue to be a strong leader. Yes, there’s no question that “Crackberry” users, primarily business-based customers, will continue to addictively support their brand (after all, our President has one, or is it two?). But I suggest that Apple will hold the number 2 position for a long time to come and actually gain marketshare with the iPhone and extensions from it.
The key to the iPhone brand is several very important things: The iPhone was the first device that created a really strong mobile computing platform by integrating the super popular iPod with an Internet connection, texting, email and oh yes, a phone. Then they opened up the development of the apps to outside developers and presented the incentive of a shared revenue model that insured a growing dominance for the iPhone and more apps for the user. They basically copied what Microsoft did 30 years ago – create a basic platform, some key apps and then let everyone else build on it. Now there are 30,000 downloadable applications for the iPhone. Lastly, lets add the Apple cachet. Apple is not just a computer company – it’s a mobile-device platform that allows people to expand and connect to all the key areas of their life – entertainment, video, music, friends, family, business associates, places to eat, shop and go. Thus all the products they develop are about sharing, entertaining, and connecting people’s lives and lifestyles.
The Google Android is a great phone that’s more affordable with dozens of major corporate development partners and an open platform that may survive and gain momentum (after all Google needs something it owns to put its browser and “cloud computing” apps on so users can access them anytime and anywhere.) But the developer leverage isn’t there. They have these big but often slow moving, not very creative partners. Keep in mind the best apps are simple, fast and innovative. This does not come from HP, Microsoft, IBM, or Oracle.
So where does this leave Palm and the rather cool Pre? Not very safe in my opinion. Their product, feature wise, is good but the brand is old, with a creaky legacy and not innovative enough. They did hire the former Apple iPod exec Jon Rubinstein as the new CEO to add some juju to their brand. But sales are proving me out. They are far below their expectations from their launch on June 1, while Apple has had to shut down orders online to catch up with over 1 million orders with postponed activation for the iPhone 3G S in 3 weeks.
The key to building a brand like the iPhone is both simple and hard to execute: have a great brand like Apple and bring your most successful product into the one, open the door to new developers and keep ‘em coming (they are far, far ahead of any other smart phone out there) and have a slavishly loyal customer base that loves their brand and sees it as the leader, if not the creator, of the mobile computing world.