Rival Manufacturers Chasing the iPhone

From The New York Times -

Now that analysts and industry executives are getting their first good look at the iPhone, many are concerned that Asian manufacturers may have underestimated the Apple threat.

Analysts say that the iPhone, with its full-scale Internet browser and distinctive touch screen with colorful icons, is more than just another souped-up cellphone. They fear the Silicon Valley challenger could leap past Asian makers into the age of digital convergence by combining personal computing and mobile technologies as no device has before.

Their fear is that the iPhone will become the prototype of the future of mobile phones. And that Apple may repeat in wireless communications what it accomplished in portable music with the iPod: changing the industry.

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Personal take - For iPhone to succeed (and redefine the standard) in Asia, it will have to support prevalent SMS texting habits in the various countries. Text input is by no means standard, given the myriad of different languages. For languages such as English and Tagalog that use primarily the phone keypad to enter text and allow straightforward memorization of keystrokes, physical keys that provide tactile feedback are practically a requirement.

Thus under its current configuration, iPhone will not capture significant market share. The irony, of course, is that if future generations of iPhones were to incorporate physical keypads in order to gain additional market share, the resultant design would make them conform more to present phones and therefore less revolutionary.