Can An iPhone On Steroids Eliminate The Competition?

from Brand Channel - Stephanie Startz, December 1st, 2009

What's better than a robot phone? How about a phone on steroids?

Motorola may have won the recent brand loyalty battle, but the war is far from over. Apple is expected to introduce a new challenger into the smartphone thunderdome in 2010, as reports circulate of a new iPhone, currently in beta form, spotted in the wild.

Giving weight to the rumors is the recent tip provided to the MacRumors web site by iPhone App developer Pandav. Pandav claims that a device named "iPhone3,1" was found in their usage records after accessing the developer's iBART application. iBart is a guide to the San Francisco area public transport system, in Cupertino-based Apple's vicinity. MacRumors expects the new phone to release in mid-2010, as it is following a similar schedule to the iPhone2,1. It too was spotted during testing about eight months before its release, in October 2008, according to Pandav.

Speculation about the iPhone's new processor capacity is abundant. Business web site 24/7 Wall St is touting the third-generation smartphone as an "iPhone-on-steroids," expecting it to be a game changer not only for the smartphone industry, but to pose a major challenge to netbooks with its ramped-up super processor.

The iPhone looks to be poised for dominance in 2010. Industry insiders expect the iPhone to arrive on Verizon's network by mid-2010; the aid of a reliable network and increased capacity should have Motorola and RIM quaking in their boots. The expanded processor will allow the iPhone to manage the tasks that businesses have long relied on the Blackberry to do. And if the new iPhone can simultaneously run apps, then the Droid may lose one of its main bragging rights.

Still, there remains one dark horse: Google. Details are still vague regarding the search engines handset, but iPhone can't offer the one thing Google can: Google Voice (with access to the entire Google Cloud) and free calls. Apple recently allowed users to access Skype over the iPhone's cellular data connections, previously relegated to wifi connections only. Until the iPhone allows users to run mulitple apps simultaneously users will have to compromise with the iPhone.

Perhaps some urine samples will leak in the coming weeks to indicate whether Apple has resolved the iPhone's app problem.