Not really!

El Reg is a tech tabloid read in many countries and does have a large US readership!

But I agree, the real problem for Google in confronting the iPhone, in the US, is the head start Apples created. I suspect that about the time a Google phone is released a new spec iPhone will appear on the market. The question is which market sector will Google’s offspring target or will it go head to head with Apple’s iPhone 4? The other problem is the US centric business model employed by Google. It’s a global economy now and success comes from breaking the global hegemony of Nokia, something Apple's iPhone is starting to do in Europe.

As for my Nokia N97 smartphone, I still have a year on the contract, the lens is scratched by its cover, I’m awaiting the fourth firmware update in 6 months, and from the noises coming out of Nokia they still don’t get it!

diddums...

How, exactly are Apple oppressing you? You pay your money, you take choice. I love the fact that you are arrogant enough to presume that an long established, successful, technology business doesn't know what they are doing, as if they were amateurs! Did you actually read the article?! The thing is still flying off the shelves! It's the market leader because it's good at what it does - why do you think *everyone* is trying to copy it? The thing is Apple haven't once told me or you how you can use the device (funny no-one mentions this as being problem with the iPod touch). What they do is restrict where you can legitimately get apps from. Admittedly, this has not been as smooth as it could have been, but as we've seen froma security POV it worked brilliantly. Here's the thing. Apple give a shit how their devices work. The fact that a product designer is the CEO's right hand man gives this away. Having owned and used Blackberrys (they work is about the nicest thing I can say), Windows Mobile (turgid, just awful) and currently owning an Android device as well as an iPhone, I can tell you this - in terms of out of the box readiness and shear ease of use, there Currently isn't a phone on the market that is as good as the iPhone. Android OS is not far off, but it's still relativly new. There are things that Apple can learn from Android, and vice versa. One thing is for sure, mobile computing has never been so accesible.

Ringtones?

Others have said most of what needs saying in reply to your post, so I'll limit my comment to the issue of ringtones you raise. Not that ringtones are exactly the be-all and end-all, but whatever... I just get irritated by this sort of daft claim which is patently nonsense in a rant about how awful Apple are, when IMHO they're no worse than any other big US corp.

How exactly are Apple controlling your freedom with respect to ringtones? If you have a Mac, you can make an iPhone ring tone out of any audio file you can load into Garageband: you just select a suitable excerpt (I think there's a max length of about 40 secs) and tell it to save it as a ringtone. Sync your iPhone and job done...

IIRC there are utilities to do the same thing on Windows.

Yes, I believe you can pay the iTunes store to make a ringtone from any DRMed purchased tracks - but that's a legacy from when iTunes music was DRMed. Who'd bother when you can make your own for nothing?

OMFG!

If only. The things you^H^H^H I could do with Priss and a rootkit.

Who knew the future was going to be so much fun?

Despite what the media may portray...

Apple are number 3 - not number 1.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1224645

Nokia 42.3

RIM 15.9

Apple 12.9

HTC 4.5

I'd expect those figures to change radically over the next year though!

iPhone sales figures

Apple isn't too shabby considering they have so few models.

In the smartphone market, Q3 '09 saw Apple shipping a smidgen over 7M units. Compared to RIMs 8.5M and Nokia's 16M. However, in Q2 '09, Apple sold 4.7M, compared to RIMs 5.8M and Nokia's 15.5M. In short, Nokia has peaked and RIM/Apple are still growing. HTC are still starting up, so are one to watch. It will be interesting to see how Googlephones (either from Google or via Android) shape up in the market.

I think the point was that Apple has a big lead over Google/Android, though. In addition, Apple seem to have all the glory due to their marketing, despite being a mere 3rd place in the actual marketplace. Google has the budget and the channels to out-market Apple - if they have the marketing brains, which they probably do.

It's how...

Bling?! So it's shit because it looks good? Fantastic reasoning there mate! Brilliant. Trouble is your views are seemingly based on conjecture and heresay. You've played with one in a shop, or with a friends at best. So you aren't really qualified to pass comment. You are of course entitled to your opinion. When will people learn that it's not the feature, it's how well it's implemented. The SMS system is brilliant. The mail client is excellent, there is room for improvement but IMHO and experience it's best in class. The web browser is excellent - I *like* the fact that it doesn't support Flash - especially given the dreadful and intrusive Shell ad's that have been appearing on these pages (won't buy fuel from them any time soon). Again, there is room for improvement, but its HTML/CSS/JavaScript implementation is WebKit based, like the browser found in Android, which is best in class. The App store is excellent. Yes, of the 90000 apps, at best 5% are actually any good. I was told that there are more free apps for Android, but that's a meaningless measure. It about quality and there is a hell of a lot of quality on the App Store. I agree that Apple could handle it a bit better - a lot better in fact, but by and large it works extremely well. My experience with the Android market place whilst not bad, hasn't been anywhere close to that of the App Store. The contracts available with the device aren't cheap, granted but in no way as expensive as people try and make out and if you want a decent Andriod based HTC smartphone or Blackberry on contract, you are looking at paying about the same, with *much* less in the way of "extras"! The difference is that the handset is usually free up front. How many other contracts come with unlimited wifi on BT OpenZone and The Cloud, which I have found to be excellent. O2 coverage isn't great, but it has got better since I've had my contract and their customer services team have been excellent - much better than Orange *ever* were when I was a customer (10 years). The fact that it's a well made, nice looking handset is a bonus. So please, don't comeback with "locked down" or "multitasking" or "fixed battery" or "it's expensive". It's OK not to like the device, not everyone is going to like it, but dismissing it the way you have is puerile. This strawman bollocks has really got to stop. It's the device that every new comer is compared to for a reason - and has yet to be completely bested by other devices. That's not to say it won't be, but that's what the article is really about and I suggest that you actually read it...

@ Simon Banyard

What the previous poster was saying I think was that there are better offerings out there. At no point did he say it's shit because it looks good (I think you need to get your eyes tested).

He is correct - in as much as most people buy the iPhone because of it's looks and the fashion statement you make by just by having one. It's a fashion accessory before it's a phone, regardless whether or not its a decent phone. This is what the people have made it.

You can see this in evidence if you go anywhere near London. Nearly 3/4 of the commuters I see on my travels to and from work have one, and they INSIST on making everyone else see that they have one (despite the fact everyone else has one!).

I would own one myself, having said that, if you didnt have to use that steaming pile of shit called iTunes.