With a small army of Android phones headed to the market from Motorola, LG Electronics, and Sony, the stage is set for a major showdown between the two fastest-growing smartphone platforms as Apple brings the iPhone 4 to market. But the challenges seen by AT&T, Apple's exclusive U.S. carrier, and Apple in taking advance orders for the iPhone 4 could give the competition a boost.
Those rivals include Motorola's Droid X -- launching one day before the iPhone 4 -- with its 4.4-inch screen and the Droid Shadow with a 4.3-inch screen. Like Sprint's HTC EVO, these upstarts are showing defiant bulk as the iPhone gets slimmer. The Droids are packed with goodies like slide-out keyboards -- still absent from the iPhone -- fast processors and sharp cameras, and, perhaps, Android's latest multitasking operating system Relevant Products/Services, version 2.2.
iPhone 4 Mania
According to several reports, LG will release up to 20 new Android devices, while Sony Ericsson is readying the Xperia 8 for battle.
But the iPhone 4 is no slouch either, with its 960-by-640-pixel screen with Retina display, a gyroscope, and dual cameras for video Relevant Products/Services conferencing. A leak of the prototype in April and AT&T's decision to allow early upgrades to iPhone 3GS customers have fueled a landslide of pre-orders.
The carrier said there were 13 million upgrade inquiries on its web site and it had to suspend pre-orders on Wednesday, when a new system designed for fraud protection reportedly went haywire amid the chaos.
Apple, too, said it was overwhelmed, announcing on its site that the computer giant and its partners had taken 600,000 pre-orders, the largest ever in a single day. That forced Apple to push back the order-fulfillment target date from July 2 to July 14.
"Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration, " Apple said. "We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock."
'You Can Never Go Back'
Apple stores and retailers such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Radio Shack will begin selling the iPhone 4 on June 24, but demand is certain to exceed supply.
"The loyalty is to Apple," said Gartner wireless Relevant Products/Services analyst Ken Dulaney, who doesn't believe frustrated iPhone fans will throw up their hands and get an Android phone Relevant Products/Services instead. "AT&T could do a lot of things wrong and the users will stay there. The only thing that would be a game changer is an iPhone at Verizon Relevant Products/Services. Once a Mac hack you never go back, I guess people are saying."
Recent research has shown both Apple and Android gaining on the smartphone leader, Research In Motion in U.S. sales, picking up two percent of the market each, with Apple in the number-two spot at 28 percent -- impressive since Apple essentially has only one smartphone. Android, with its many devices on multiple carriers, has only nine percent of the market.
But NDP reported that Android devices outsold the iPhone in the first quarter, with 28 percent of the market compared to 21 percent.
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