The new Google phone is the end of the smartphone wars

The new Google phone is the end of the smartphone wars

The new Google phone is the end of the smartphone wars

Everyone has seen the new Google phone by now and it's a good phone. What's new is that it's really thin and a nice looking. Maybe there is a faster processor or more pixels on the screen -- we'll find that out in the next couple of days, but nobody cares about that part. With this last improvement to the physical form, it has closed the gap. The Droid Clone Wars are over -- they have made an iPhone Clone.

The UI is good, the interface is touchy and slick, everything is fast, they have a really big app universe that's expanding, they have bluetooth and gps and wifi and so forth. They have it all. Camera, video, maps, etc etc.

They even sell Android phones in every variation and combination you could want -- Verizon or Sprint or Tmobile, contract or unlocked, with keyboard or all touch.

But the main thing they have not made is something important that the iPhone doesn't have.

In fact, 2010's new iPhone is really no different than 2009's. At least 2009's was better than the previous one -- had 3G and had apps. My guess is that 2011's will be even less "different" on this kind of scale. Faster chip? 4G radio? It's just not much different. Camera on both faces for video phone calls? Stretching credulity.

This kind of thing happens in biological evolution too. See the Cambrian Explosion. Life forms like products go through periods of massive change, and then stabilize on certain bodyplans and compete around the marginal features. We're in for that now with smartphones.

There are probably going to be a bunch more Microsoft, Nokia, RIMM, and other devices that are sexy and lovely in many of the same ways as the Nexus One. And the Nexus One may not even sell many units. But it's the end of iPhone's "we are better" era.

So what next?

Mobile internet devices that aren't phones, maybe?

Smartbooks -- little laptops powered by cell phone CPUs?

Netbooks? (Netbooks without the keyboards?)

Or maybe Apple knew this day would come as soon as it did. And the next thing is tablets.

Posted by amol at January 4, 2010 11:41 PM