iPhone and What’s Coming: Synthesis

Over the last few weeks, we discussed a number of iPhone related issues that are key blocks challenging the rest of the eco-system today. Here is a quick synthesis of the key nuggets:

(1) It’s positioning as a laptop replacement device, which I believe will force most of the other laptop and cellular handset vendors to consider introducing one, causing ripples through the entire eco-system (RIM, Nokia, Dell, Motorola, Palm).

(2) The winners and losers on the chip side of the eco-system, and how each are likely to respond (Intel, Samsung, Marvel, Nvidia, Broadcom, ARM, TI, Qualcomm). It is clear, that whichever chip vendor comes up with the minimum power consumption, maximum hyper-integration chip has an enormous opportunity to tap into, whether or not the iPhone is a success. The new category, I think, WILL be a success.

(3) The iPhone’s leapfrog decision : The Operating System. [Read Frank’s original post, and my Microsoft post, as well as the discussion in context.]

(4) UI : Will the market accept Apple’s innovation?

(5) The GSM vs. CDMA debate, on which I need to do some more research. You’ll see a lot of questions raised in the discussion on Qualcomm, some of which I addressed further in a follow-on piece.

I haven’t even started investigating the telecom carrier side yet (except a piece on AT&T), nor much of the networking side (except a brief piece on Cisco) but nonetheless, my viewpoint is that the iPhone, not least for its immense ability to generate media attention, will send every player in the eco-system back to the drawing board. To rethink. To ask questions.

In this series, my first attempt has been to figure out what the key questions relevant to this market are. In the future, we can build upon the framework of questions, and add data, as data becomes available, and also enhance with additional research.

Updates:

iPhone & the Future of Qualcomm: Addendum