Although Google’s first cell phone, the G1, won’t be released until October 22, 2008, the specifications are finally available. The G1 has copy and paste, Google Maps' Street View, expandable memory, and a search button, and it's based on Android, an open-source operating system.
These features are missing from the iPhone, as sources like Wired, the Wall Street Journal, Popular Science, the New York Times, CNET, and Engadget are quick to mention.
At this moment the Internet is abuzz with comparisons between the G1 and the iPhone. Interestingly, far fewer sources are comparing the G1 with the BlackBerry—and even those articles are name-checking the iPhone. Now the iPhone has become the de facto smartphone against which all others are measured, displacing the BlackBerry.
According to Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis at the NPD Group, “In the case of the T-Mobile G1, there was ample justification for comparing it to the iPhone: both are large, touchscreen devices and unlike…the Samsung Instinct or the Glyde or LG Voyager, this is also a smartphone, so there will be a developer community that will create programs for it.” The G1 also elicits comparison with its interface: Both can be “swiped” to view different areas of the screen.
Mark Donovan, Senior Analyst at comScore M:Metrics, said that the iPhone commands attention because it’s a “disruptive” device. “They introduced an interface that was pretty revolutionary. [The iPhone has] an ease of use that made people coo, which is not something they’re used to with their mobile phone… The Motorola Razr was all about fashion. The iPhone rolled up fashion, style, and function into a phone, and for the first time in the U.S. really created a phone that people it loved it for.”
Meawhile, the iPod is the unit of measurement by which other MP3 players are held up to by journalists, industry leaders, and consumers alike. Several articles by CNET, Computerworld, Wired, and USA Today that review other MP3 players are titled, “It’s No iPod.” The phrase “iPod killer” has been used liberally by Wired, CNET, ZDNet, MSNBC, and PC World, applying it to devices like the Zune, iRiver, and the Sansa, none of which actually managed to slay the mighty iPod.
One reason Apple is frequently written about is because the iPod and the iPhone are easy to review, and tend to work exactly as advertised, with minimal instructions (if any). They’re highly user friendly, and each product has a touch-me look that have people clamoring to play with it.
Apple also has only a few products in each niche. Therefore, it’s easy to compare an average cell phone to an iPhone…because there’s only one.
Rubin said, “Apple products tend to attract attention because the design and the forethought that go into creating them are generally regarded to be leading the industry in many cases.”
Both Rubin and Donovan said Apple’s genius is not what they put into their products, but what they leave out—like buttons and keyboards—paring each product down into its simplest, most elegant way of expressing itself.
Rubin said, “When [Apple] enters a category or introduces a new product, it breaks with tradition in the name of moving a platform forward.” This gives the company an advantage that makes them a viral marketer’s dream.
So not only does Apple make consumers and industry take notice because, but also because their strategies make people wonder what Apple will do next. When Apple does come out with a revolutionary new product, the world is frequently dazzled.
And that keeps people talking.
