Who could be the next iPhone killer

Launch of new smartphones over the last half of the deacade marked a shift of paradigm for the mobile phone world. Apple’s revolutionary product iPhone paved the way common man’s smartphone that was exclusively restricted to the enterprise class users. Smartphones remaines the favorite for the big wheels, who often need to use the phone to email or browse the web while on the go. Given this,  there was huge customer base craving to join the smartphone league. Apple partnered with AT&T just at the right time to bridge the gap with its touchphone. Intensifying the competition a number of smarphones hit the market that were acknowledge as iPhone killer, Droid being the latest.  With the debut of next-gen hardware, iPhone took a big leap. With some big names getting into the game it’s high-time to analyse whether iPhone would retain its stronghold over the mobile phone consumer market.

Google Phone

Google was anticipated to be joining smartphone business pretty early. This could have been the case if Google had partnered with a carrier like AT&T. However, the search engine major doesn’t seem to like hardware game and concentrated on designing an upscale OS - Android. Google partnered with the hardware manufacturer’s  to release the new smartphones. For the latest, Google had its Android OS running the Motorola Droid, which is being realized as the new iPhone killer.

According to Scott Moritz of TheStreet Google plans to develop its own mobile phone. It’s most likely Google would create an open-source handset of its own. Having said that, it would imply that Google would have to create a handset that could compete with other phones running the Android operating system. It remains to be seen, when will the Google Phone hit stores.

BlackBerry Smartphones

iPhone is still to beat the BlackBerry’s when it comes to selling. The Research in Motion (RIM) phone continues attract customers attention with its latest models Curve, Storm and Pearl. Blackberry Storm

While RIM was evolving a better handset design, it’s interface continued had few improvements over time. One of most know hitch-ups with BlackBerry is Web browsing. The smartphone offers a mind blowing interface for handling tasks like e-mail and calendar management. When it comes to the Web browsering, Blackberry lacks the sophistication of the competing brands.

If RIM plans to design an simple and intuitive interface, Blackberry could easily override Apple’s smartphone.

Palm smartphones

Palm had reigned the smartphone market for years. Palm was the first smartphones in the U.S. market and has evolved over generations. With the takeover of Handspring, Palm created the Treo - the smartphone assured its reputation in the smartphone industry. In 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) the company announced the Palm Pre. It carried a touch screen interface with a new WebOS.

Palm Pre was launched with much hype but failed to deliver the expectations generated in CES. Palm Pre faces an uphill task to claim market share. Later in 2009, Palm launched its new bet Pixi. The smartphone had the same OS as the Palm Pre. However, it was targeted to serve a different section of market. Palm has cut down some of the Pre’s features and the cost, which makes Pixi a more affordable smartphone.

Palm needs to improve upon its hardware to get its devices on other cell phone carriers. With a more versatile hardware Palm could ultimately evolve a robust smartphone to give Apple’s iPhone a run for money.