Apple IPhone Has Shocked Wireless Industry

When Apple's iPhone stormed CES two months ago, it shocked the cellular industry.

At CTIA, evidence apeared that Apple is forcing a sluggish wireless industry to respond to its hybrid media player/phone, which won't even go on sale until June and will cost $500 for the most basic version.

Samsung and Sprint's UpStage, a music player-phone hybrid goes on sale next month. Smaller than a deck of cards, UpStage ignores the standard practice of integrating the audio player functions into the phone, instead placing phone and audio functions on opposites sides of the case.

"It's a music phone, not a smart phone, and it's getting excellent ratings."- said Kim Titus, a senior PR manager at Samsung Electronics.

Other cellular industry executives were quick to hop on the iPhone bandwagon too. "There's nothing like having someone come out and validate your vision," said Bill Blummer, Nokia's vice president of multimedia in North America. "Nokia has always had a passion for creating convergence devices." Nokia's best play this week was the Nokia N76, a RAZR-like 3G fashion-phone.

Other devices introduced at CTIA this week:

- Motorola's Rizr Z3 (available from T-Mobile), maxx Ve, and MC35.

- Helio's Ocean, with a sliding keyboard.

- Sony Ericsson's W580, its latest "Walkman phone".

- LG's Prada phone, which was said to be the model for the iPhone.

- HTC showed the Shift, an attractive handheld computer, as well as a smaller the Advantage.

In the CTIA news race, however, they're all also-rans to iPhone's booming success. iPhone to Have Unlimited Email Storage.

The iPhones are not a million pre-orders, and no one will know how much of a chunk Apple will eventually bite from the cellular market. Apple's rivals know it's hard to fight the mystic effects of mindshare, but at $500 a piece, nothing's in the bag for the iPhone.

Source: Web News