- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
I went along to a blogger’s briefing on the new LG Arena a couple of evenings ago, and – of course – the iPhone came up as a topic of questions and conversation.
What struck me was the way that Apple has managed to come in and completely dominate the conversation about touch screen phones, owning the space and creating a benchmark that every other phone is measured against. And what’s interesting is the way that other manufacturers are pulling against this, and get the conversation back on to territory where they are strong.
The Arena is a case in point. I’ll write up a proper review of it in the near future, but it’s fair to say that it’s terrific hardware. The touch screen is a great improvement over that of the LG Viewty, the camera is 5mp and feature-packed (120fps video, 6-shot burst mode, face tracking, etc), and audio is really good thanks to some new gubbins from Dolby.
But it’s not open in terms of development, it doesn’t have an application store, and the web browsing experience is no more than adequate.
In other words, it’s aimed at people who want music, video, a good camera, and a small phone: People, in other words, who probably wouldn’t even think of an iPhone. It’s not in the same market. And yet, because it has a touch screen, we’ll undoubtedly see lots of reviews which start with the question “is this phone an iPhone killer?” – when it’s not meant to be.
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Impressive features, no doubt. It doesn't have to be an iPhone killer, it only has to be a handset that users enjoy and are able to use all of it's functions with a minimum of fuss.
The iPhone is in a different class and will never likely have the cutting edge features that some handsets offer. Apple loves profit margins and those higher end features would put the iPhone's price into the stratosphere and would cut down on overall sales. Apple has to keep a fine balance between price, features and ease of use. I'd only be looking for a slightly higher quality camera, much better battery life and a faster graphics processor.
I dare you to review the LG Arena without mentioning Apple or the iPhone once.
… and that's how Apple won the mobile battle.
Would “iP***e be ok?
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