To Beat The iPhone, Nokia RIM and Palm Need One Thing – Apps

“Improvements such as cut, copy and paste [and] the new landscape keypad as well as the voice control will all help increase usability,” Milanesi said. “Other improvements such as memory, camera and MMS [Multimedia Messaging Service] support also make sure the iPhone caught up with the competition on some key requirements. But most of all the new OS and the application offerings continue to set Apple apart from its competitors.”

Playing the numbers game

At the WWDC, Apple presented a chart showing that its App Store now offers 50,000 applications—while Google’s Android offers 4,900, Nokia offers 1,088, RIM’s BlackBerry offers 1,030 and the just-beginning Palm offers 18.

Analyst Adam Leach of consulting company Ovum said in a statement that Apple’s new offering was evidence of the move toward managed device platforms, or MDPs.

“Consumers will increasingly make buying decisions based not on a device’s potential to support advanced capabilities but — crucially — on the vendor managing their data and services on the device,” Leach wrote. “The ability to deliver a tightly integrated end-to-end service proposition including content and applications directly to consumers was pioneered by Apple; however, the adoption of the MDP model by Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Sony and other major vendors will drive the adoption of smartphones.”

Ovum expects 171.9 million smartphones to ship globally in 2009, for a growth of 23 percent from 2008. Meeting this expectation, smartphones would represent 15 percent of the total worldwide mobile phone market.

TBR’s Gottheil agreed that Apple’s application offerings are a part of what sets it apart.

“It makes a potential competitor have a two-part problem — you need a darn good device, and the ability to fill it with content that will drive people to it,” Gottheil said.

RIM and Nokia will keep on

Gottheil said the iPhone 3G S doesn’t change things much for RIM, as the iPhone and the BlackBerry have “effectively divided up the market.” As for Nokia and the potential success of its N97 flagship mobile device, Gottheil said it’s good simply that Nokia is in the game.

“It’s like a horse race. You stay in in case the leader stumbles or gets tired, or you find an extra burst of energy. But no one entering [the] race at this point is going to slow down Apple or RIM; they have an open field ahead of them.”

An Apple level of success, Gottheil said, “takes sustained excellence, and some good luck.”