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Apple Puts The Wireless Industry On Notice

As if the first-generation iPhone didn't rattle the wireless industry enough, Apple gave it another firm shake. Yesterday, Apple announced that it will preview the next generation of its iPhone OS at a special event to be held at Apple headquarters next week. If Apple can release new a version of its OS each year, can Palm, Microsoft, Symbian, BlackBerry, and other mobile operating platforms keep up?

Windows Mobile received a moderate user interface refresh from 6.0 to 6.1. The gap between the two versions was about a year. Most of the updates were focused on making the home screen more navigable. The underlying guts remained pretty much unchanged. The updates were given a lukewarm reception. It's already been a year since 6.1 was announced, and it looks like we have at least a six-month wait before the release of Windows Mobile 6.5, which promises far greater revisions to the platform. It will be more than two years since iPhone OS 1.0 was brought to market before WinMo 6.5 arrives.

BlackBerry OS has just in the last six months or so seen a real update between older versions, such as 4.2, to the more current versions 4.6 and 4.7, which are seen on the Bold and Storm. A lot of the underlying guts are the same, but the user interface has seen a serious refresh and usability is a bit better. Media functions and features, in particular, have been bolstered.

Symbian S60 has been virtually unchanged for as long as I can remember. S60 3rd Edition was announced in 2005. It didn't hit the market for nearly a year. Since then, it has seen two .x updates to Feature Pack 1 and Feature Pack 2. Not all of the newest phones from Nokia are running even the latest version (Feature Pack 2) yet. The E71, for example, still uses Feature Pack 1, which has been in the market for years. The differences between the Feature Packs is noticeable, but not revolutionary. Each brings with it new features, but no real changes in the overall usability of the OS. Nokia did announce S60 5th Edition in October 2008, which brings the power of touch to S60. The first phone to use it, the 5800 XpressMusic, has only recently come to market. S60 5th Edition is the biggest update that S60 has seen in a long time. But this response to the iPhone comes more than 18 months after the iPhone first became available.

Palm has taken far, far longer to get its act together. The old Garnet OS is pushing 5+ years in age, and we still have several months to go before Palm's Garnet successor, webOS, hits the market. webOS is the most innovative of the bunch, though it still carries a lot of iPhone-esque elements. How quickly will Palm innovate on the first version of webOS?

The first iPhone OS was a revelation. iPhone OS 2.0, which became available 54 weeks after the original, brought with it many new features, though the basic usability of the OS remained unchanged. Since then a .1 and .2 release have included several new features and functions. At this point, only Apple knows what's in store for iPhone OS 3.0. Will it bring vast new features and functionality? We can only hope.

The point is, Apple is setting the pace. By bringing a new iPhone OS to market each year, it is telling the other phone manufacturers that it isn't going to rest on its laurels. It is going to continue to innovate, and innovate consistently. The other smartphone platforms already have been too slow to react to iPhone OS 1.0. How can they respond to iPhone OS 2.0, and now 3.0?

Apple does have it easier than the others. It essentially sells one device on which to run one OS. The others have to support multiple form factors, multiple manufacturers, and multiple network operators. The perception remains, however, that the existing smartphone platforms need to speed up their pace of innovation and adoption.

Can they -- and will they -- do it?

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