Chicago (IL) - In spite of predictions that Apple would grace the Mobile World
Congress 2009 (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain this week,
the company instead totally ignored the event. This also means they ignored the mobile industry's call for a universal cellphone charger. Apple's presence is still felt at the show in both tension and excitement over the iPhone -- depending on whether
you're an Apple rival or partner. Steve Ballmer
was bashing Apple's handset once again, while AT&T chief defended
it. Google showed its love via offline Gmail access, while a small developer demoed the first premium turn-by-turn
GPS application for it.

It's been over two and a half years since the first iPhones were sold, and the
mobile industry still lacks the so-called iPhone killer.
Despite numerous challengers, no cellphone has yet succeeded
in taking the iPhone's shine, ease of use and lust factor. That
hasn't stopped some vendors from believing their products had what it takes to kill the iPhone. But in reality, they all miscalculated, believing that mere hardware abilities would be sufficient to achieve such a goal.

This kind of thinking highlights one reality though, the industry is suffering from the same
syndrome that brought U.S. car makers to the brink of extinction -- trying to compete on hardware merits alone. In the U.S. car market,
efficiently engineered cars from Japan took the domestic market by surprise because not only were they better engineered, but many felt they looked nicer and catered more to function with regards to people's needs, and not just engineering needs.
And although iPhone rivals are closing in, the industry still appears to be struggling
with that same reality -- that software and ease of use ultimately comes first in consumer choice. It's not just about the hardware.

Rivals still fear iPhone

Apple may have
been absent from MWC, but its iPhone took center stage during
conferences which brought the biggest names in the industry together. Cnet reports
that during The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg moderated panel (that included CEOs
of Microsoft, AT&T and Nokia), Steve Ballmer couldn't resist bashing
Apple's vertically integrated approach, pitting Apple's vertically
integrated experience against diversity and choice in the marketplace. He reportedly said, "I agree that no single company can create all the
hardware and software. Openness is central because it's the
foundation of choice." [This came from Microsoft's Ballmer? -Editor]

An audience member asked the CEOs why they fear Apple, arguing that the
iPhone holds only a fraction of the overall cellphone market.
AT&T's Ralph de la Vega replied, "Because the
other 99.5% of the industry is trying to copy the iPhone.

Ballmer's and de la Vega's remarks
show how entrenched players still accept (with great unease) that a total outsider has stepped in to their turf and taught them what the
cellphone should be all about. And even more so than Apple's current market share figures,
its rivals are clearly terrified of Apple's ability to take consumer mind
share.

Turn-by-turn GPS comes to iPhone

Pundits
frequently bash the iPhone over its lack of turn-by-turn GPS navigation
applications. While several companies, including TomTom, have announced
they are working on such applications, we have yet to see any of them because the
iPhone's current SDK specifically prohibits turn-by-turn applications.
Still, that didn't stop a company called Sygic from demoing
a fully featured turn-by-turn GPS application for the iPhone which shows
what iPhone users have been missing all this time. Sygic plans to
challenge Apple by submitting the application for the inclusion in the
App Store. It will be interesting to see how consumers respond knowing that such an application exists, against Apple's policy that such an application cannot exist ... on the iPhone.

Read on next page:  Google still loves the iPhone, Apple ignores universal cellphone charger...

Google prefers iPhone over Android G1

As strange
is it seems, Google has proved on several occasions that it actually prefers
Apple's iPhone over T-Mobile's G1 smartphone powered by its own
Android platform. Street View in G1's mapping application originally
appeared on G1, but soon thereafter it hit the iPhone. Since then, mobile search with voice, Google Earth for smartphones, Gmail tasks and related services all appeared on the iPhone first, and then on Android. Even simultaneously unveiled services, like the new Adwords mobile campaigns, still prefer to mention the iPhone in documentation and help files.

According to Venture Beat, Google even catered to Apple's wish not to use multi-touch in Android - hence the reason G1 lacks pinch zoom and other multi-fingered gestures. Apple's 358 page iPhone patent
(granted last month) also had an effect on Microsoft because their updated
Windows Mobile OS doesn't employ multi-touch gestures either. The arrival
of Android G2, and several other Android-powered devices, won't change Google's love for the iPhone one iota I predict.

On the contrary, it seems the search giant chose iPhone to demo
a special Gmail version that works on mobile Safari even while the
handset is in offline mode, providing users with the capability to read
and write email messages stored locally and synchronize them
automatically with the cloud when the connection comes back -- similar
to offline mode
in desktop Gmail. As its mobile implementation is based on HTML5, it
will work on any HTML5-compliant browser -- like the one found in Android.
Nevertheless, Google still turned to iPhone to unveil the feature.

Apple ignores the universal cellphone charger

Apple was notably absent from the universal charger push
the rest of the mobile industry announced at MWC. The promise of one
charger for all mobile phones, officially known as the Universal Charging
Solution (UCS) initiative, was appealing enough to unite the GSMA and
17 industry heavy-weights, including AT&T, LG, Motorola, Nokia,
Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile, Vodafone and others. However, the
idea of universal charger obviously doesn't t appeal to Apple who -- for
reasons only known to those adept at deciphering hidden meaning behind
Apple's often mysterious moves -- completely
ignored the initiative.

Apple's move is even more surprising if you
know the universal charger is meant to simplify things for consumers -- something Apple likes to swear by. The universal charger, rated with at least
four stars, will be three times more efficient and consume half
stand-by energy than an unrated charger. In addition, it will decrease greenhouse gas emission by an estimated 13.6 to 21.8
million metric tons by decreasing the replacement rate for existing
charger which will gradually phase out. Most importantly, it will let users use the same charger to charge all future
cellphones anywhere in the world -- except iPhone owners who will, if
Apple doesn't change its stance, be left with Apple's
proprietary iPhone/iPod dock connector that will again single out the Cupertino-based hardware manufacture, this time by being completely incompatible with rest of the
world.

On the other hand, it could be argued that Apple is
already ahead of the industry because it ships iPhones with the USB
charger. This charger plugs into the wall socket and has the USB port which plus into iPhone's cord, designed with USB connector on one end and dock
connector on the other. Since most computer products, some cellphones,
and even stuff like flashlights, all use either USB or mini USB ports to
recharge, some industry watchers think there is no need to re-invent the
wheel, stressing that the USB or the mini USB port is a universal plug, and one that Apple already wholly supports.