Smartphone Carnage Far From Over

I can still remember meeting with people from RIMM 10 years ago, as they were a relative upstart compared to Palm, and were feeling out Microsoft’s intentions in the smart phone space. Since then, a lot has happened. Lots of new players and threats have emerged, and many have fizzled out after great hype. All of the recent hype about iPhone 3G would make you think that the Smartphone market is Apple’s to win (from RIMM). Heck, much of the coverage makes it sound as if the iPhone is the first phone to have a popular developer ecosystem. CNET even went so far as to predict that the iPhone would replace Facebook and MySpace as the preferred social network targeted by widget vendors and advertisers! As in the past, the popular consensus is bound to look myopic in hindsight. In this industry, there are 4 types of players who... [read full story]