China was supposed to belong to the iPhone. Sorry, Apple
According to The Wall Street Journal, China Mobile
Anyone else see this as a huge loss for Apple? Notice I didn't say that this is a huge win for Dell. Perhaps it could become one over time, but we have yet to see what Dell's smartphone can do. We don't know how it will be positioned to compete against Research In Motion's
If I'm not optimistic that Dell will create a globally competitive smartphone, it's because software is increasingly what distinguishes the great handsets from the good, and the good from the bad. For the iPhone, it's the iTunes App Store. For the BlackBerry, it's push email. For Nokia
What's that? Dell doesn't need software, thanks to Android? Fine, but how would an Android-powered mini3i set itself apart from other Android handsets? How would it beat HTC's touch-screen phones? How would it compete with the feature-rich Palm
That's assuming Dell even gets a chance to sell a smartphone here in the U.S. -- it may not. The "mini3i" is for China, and that's bad news for Apple. Hundreds of millions of would-be iPhoners will now get a Dell, or a BlackBerry, or avoid smartphones altogether.
Dell didn't win this round. Apple lost it.
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