Sure, we've seen AT&T partner with Apple to deliver the iPhone. The device was certainly interesting, but I've talked to a number of people who didn't find the sales overly impressive. Nonetheless, while the stumbling may be due to AT&T's lackluster service delivery suite, Apple set the bar high with the iPhone interface.

Now the whole industry's abuzz with talk of the coming gPhone from Google. Lots of buzz, but little substance so far. Linux based according to most rumors. Lots of buzz.

Then there's the market leader. The clearcut market winner. Yep, Nokia perks right along simply selling 11 handsets per second into the market the others simply dream about. That's 39% market share, and from branding perspective, makes Nokia the 5th most valuable brand on the planet.

Jan Chipchase - Future Perfect: 5th, 11, 39%, 70+:

The significance of the numbers? According to this recent
InterBrand/BusinessWeek survey the 5th most valuable brand in the world
with industry peers such as Microsoft at #2, Samsung at #21, Apple at
#33 and Motorola at #77. 11 phones sold per second, which equates to a
39% market share in a (roughly) 1 billion sold per year industry. And
lastly 70+ languages supported on our entry level products.

Tires and toilet paper? Mentioned because the company has a history of
re-inventing itself from its fairly recent focus that included these
two products, and that the design research which the Tokyo team is
engaged in has a scope very much broader than simply mobile phones.

Having spent the last year testing the Nokia N-series handsets (N73, N93, N80i and N95) along with the incredible N800 Internet Tablet, it's clear why Nokia holds such powerful ground. They didn't release a competitot to the iPhone because they already had solid competetive producs on the market whether as a phone (N95) or as a media device (N800).

Personally, I don't think the iPhone or whatever Google's phone becomes stand a snowball's chance of hurting Nokia's leadership position.


Technorati Tags: iPhone, Google, gPhone, Nokia, mobile devices, mobility, N73, N93, N80i, N95, N800