Phones Just Keep Getting Smarter

Smartphones have seen a huge surge in popularity over the last few months. Apple’s iPhone is no longer the only ‘it phone’ as customers begin to clamour for more choices. They certainly are getting it, with the plethora of Android phones available as well as the upcoming Microsoft Windows Phone launch.

What has changed? Is it the consumers? Is it the technology? The reality is that the ecosystem has changed. Apple started the ball rolling with its iPhone that was created to appeal to consumers, not to pander to what telcos dictated.

Over the years, it wasn’t that there wasn’t the technology to create phones as ‘smart’ as we have now. Telcos wanted in on phone designs and their needs often did not coincide with what customers wanted.

It was no wonder Apple kept its plans for the iPhone under wraps. The device was a multimedia dream but a potential nightmare bandwidth-wise for telcos. Telcos were wary about devices that would put pressure on their ability to provide mobile connectivity.

Apple changed all that. It made the phone and telcos have to play catch up with the phone’s capabilities. Right now as we speak Maxis and DiGi are still doing testing on the iPhone 4 to see how the device will perform on their respective networks.

Now it seems that Apple might not be able to further dictate the course of smartphone evolution. Google’s Android platform has become the new behemoth that is setting the trends and stealing precious mindshare from Apple.

A developer’s dream

Why has it succeeded? The simple truth is that Android made it easy for developers not only to create apps but to market them. Apple’s App Store required not just fees but a stringent vetting process. If a developer created an app that, heaven forbid, competed with a native Apple app then the app would be struck out.

If the app would make a carrier unhappy, then the app would not make it into the App Store either. A case in point was tethering: AT&T did not want consumers tethering their iPhones to laptops despite such a feature being standard on smartphones on other companies. And Apple complied.

This created a whole underground ecosphere – the jailbreakers and Cydia users. People found the Cydia marketplace heavensent. They had access to apps that were not restricted to ‘what Apple deemed acceptable’. Hackers were willing to put effort into jailbreaking each Apple update just to be able to continue using their jailbroken apps.

Contrast that to Android’s free-for-all atmosphere. Not only can developers easily get their apps to Market, Google did not penalise anyone for selling apps outside its online storefront. Android phones  could install apps on their owns from other private developers without hassle.

Having Android not tied to just one phone maker also gave the mobile OS more of a market. HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Samsung have all embraced Android and offered consumers plenty of pickings. With HTC alone offering at least five different Android models, consumers are truly spoiled for choice.

What about everyone else?

Symbian has pretty much faded out of the picture. Try as Nokia might to resurrect the brand, the reality is that Symbian took too long to get touchscreens right when Apple and Android were already doing it well.

Though Symbian had gone open-source, the mobile OS had shown little innovation and was a tricky platform to code for. Though you did get some decent Symbian apps once in a while, they were nothing compared to the flashy ones you could find on iPhones or Android phones.

A platform can only prosper if its developer community is active and fully engaged. The Symbian community tried but were just outclassed by Android developers and Apple iPhone coders.

A hobbyist would be hard-pressed to create his own app on Symbian but both the Apple and Android platforms make it surprisingly easy for even novices to create simple applications at far less overhead.

In that respect, Microsoft is still trailing behind the rest of the pack. With the disaster that was its Kin phones it now has to contend with the muted reception worldwide to its upcoming Windows Phone launch.

The problem with Windows Phone is that it is a platform that is expensive to code for and to license. Windows Mobile phones have always tended to be expensive because Microsoft would insist on payment for licenses for each phone that used it. The cost would then be added on to the phone’s price.

To be honest, Windows Mobile just wasn’t good enough a platform for consumers to pay extra. Applications for Windows Mobile were also far trickier and pricier to purchase.

Until Microsoft rethinks its pricing strategy, then it is doomed to be just another also-ran behind Symbian in the mobile OS stakes.

It’s all in the apps

As far as money is concerned, successful Apple developers do make a decent profit but the smaller one-man or indie outfits often get sidelined. It’s far too easy to ‘disappear’ in Apple’s App Store and not be noticed.

Yet Apple developers have one advantage over Android devs: they only need to code for one phone. They don’t have to factor in differing hardware requirements that are an added complexity for Android phones.

An app that works great on the HTC Legend, for instance, might not be as good on the Motorola Droid. You know that if one app works on one model of the iPhone, it will likely work on other units and likely even older models.

What will happen over the next few months? Apple and Android will still be competing head-to-head. Time will tell which ecosystem will survive – Apple or Android.

Or perhaps both will continue to exist in tandem and the smartest developers will be the ones who can figure out how to create apps that will run on both platforms. Right now, mobile development really is the place to be.