The Comparison- Windows Phone 7 vs. Apple iPhone vs. Android vs. New Blackberry Torch

Since the release of the Apple iPhone in 2007 the world of smartphones has changed dramatically. Apple, Google Android, RIM and Microsoft Phone have been competing for market share by advancing not only their OS and user interfaces but in general the overall usability of cell phones. Let’s have a brief look at what they are offering to the users now.

Mirosoft Phone 7
After an successful attempt with the launch of its past Microsoft Mobile OS, Microsoft came up with a new strategy and a new product to make up for what it did wrong the first time. Microsoft is re-entering the market with a totally new OS: “Windows Phone 7”.

With a totally new user interface the Windows Phone 7 OS Version 1.0, will become available to users on multiple phones November 8, 2010. Among those will be the Samsung Focus, LG Quantu, HTC HD7 & 7 Pro and the Dell Venue Pro.
Microsoft built Windows Phone 7 entirely from the ground up; to prevent significant delays in release, they were somehow forced to leave out features that we take for granted on smartphones nowadays. Yet, Microsoft has brought new elements to the Smartphone category, and as everything is a matter of individual preference, some may prefer these new features over any other Smartphone.
According to first hand-on impressions by industry specialists the Windows Phone 7 impresses. A real plus of the Windows Phone 7 is its customizable home screen, which allows users to customize their information as per their preferences in live tiles which contain widgets, applications and live information as per the user preferences. This is a completely new experience and extremely user friendly. Android uses live widgets and is customizable as well.
Some of the disadvantages of the Windows Phone 7 are that it does not allow third-party applications to run in the background and pauses them until you return to the application, which is a huge disadvantage; it disallows multi-tasking. Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have a Copy/ Paste functionality as we know it from other Microsoft Programs. Windows Phone 7 uses Microsoft Maps, which has many disadvantages, most notably the large global audience of the popular Google Maps. Windows Phone 7 does not support Adobe Flash or even Microsoft’s own Flash-competing technology, Silverlight which is a huge disappointment for both users and developers.

iPhone 4
The new iPhone 4 is a complete renovate of its predecessor (iPhone 3GS) in every aspect. Initially when released the phone came with some major problems, the biggest proclaim was the poorly placed antenna, which reduced reception and the proximity sensor problem which caused users huge problems. Both of these major issues were addressed and resolved by Apple.
The iPhone 4 is noticeably slimmer, slightly narrower and at about the same weight as its predecessor. It’s 960×640 pixel IPS display is a revolution and has brought the highest resolution to the industry.  Another great feature is the “Retina display” that improves the sharpness, clarity and visible detail of images. The real difference this will make is for people who’ll spend time reading on the iPhone.
The newest feature of the iOS 4 is the introduction of multi-tasking, which however is limited compared to other phones such as RIM or Android based models. Apple’s new proclaiming feature of multi-tasking, doesn’t exactly do true multitasking. In most cases Apple puts third party applications to sleep until the user reopens them, except in some critical applications such as VoIP or Navigation Systems or Background music.
Another major improvement is the upgrade of the camera from a 3 megapixel to a 5 megapixel one and the addition of LED falsh backlit sensor, as well as the augmented reality feature of the iPhone. The camera also allows shooting of High Definition movies at 720p with 30 frames / sec.
Another real beneficial addition is face time, which allows free video conferencing among iPhone and now as recently announced all Mac users.
Real disadvantages of the iPhone 4 are lack of expandable storage, improper multi-tasking, no Adobe Flash support, no WiFi Hotspot capability.

Android based phones
Google states that Android has been its best investment ever. Android brings all Google applications and gadgets from the Internet to the phone. Android’s home screen alike the Windows Phone 7 is totally customizable by the user through the use of customizable live widgets. Samsung Epic 4G, Samsung Galaxy S, Motorola Droid X and T-Mobile’s G2 are known to be the best hosts of Google’s Android OS.
Android-based Smartphones have most of the features the others have combined and therefore this platform delivers an excellent user experience.
The Android platform is the only platform that allows the use of Adobe Flash and it’s the only platform challenging RIM’s Blackberry multitasking capability.  Android-based phones can do multiple things in the background without being paused or shut down and they are the second after the iPhone to have augmented reality integrated in their OS. Another added value is the integration of Google™ and Facebook calendars with the OS Calendar. Google Talk brings Video Conferencing and Google TV and will add additional free TV service to the platform; Also, highly developed touch screen technologies, typing advances and further features make Android a real threat to all the competition.

A major disadvantage of Android based Smartphones is security issues and privacy. Just a few weeks ago,  it was unveiled that users of Android applications can easily be tracked, e.g. where did they go last? What did they buy last? Etc.

RIM’s all new Blackberry Torch
Canadian Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind Blackberry and the leading rival of the Apple iPhone in the past years, from the very beginning separated its market segmentation by focusing on high security encrypted business phones that merely focus on emailing and messaging features and almost ignoring Internet usability and other smart-phone features. The company always tends to be very conservative when it comes to newest technologies and does not want to put their device security at risk by doing too much of what they don’t know about.

With Apple launching the iPhone 4, RIM announced a new version of their current phone series, the Blackberry Torch 9800.  RIM had to bring out a mobile phone with similar technologies to meet client demands; as a result RIM launched the Blackberry Torch, and included a touch-screen display with an Apple like scrolling interface and other added benefits. The phone has a similar design of both the Blackberry Curve and Storm phones. However a key new feature is the new vertical slide-out keyboard.   As compared to the iPhone and the current crop of Android phones, the Blackberry’s Torch’s ability for dealing with music, photos and video is limited. The Torch’s 5-megapixel camera may be its best feature.  Another good new feature is the search ability of the mobile which is quite unique. For instance in the search link enter your friend’s name and all their pictures, emails, sms messages and relevant documents, facebook shortcut, etc. will show up in a list. Another key feature of the new torch is its integrated link between social media and news networks. At a touch of a finger you can switch between your email, facebook, twitter or RSS feeds basically staying in touch with all that is important to you parallel. This Blackberry device offers true multi tasking and all open applications fully operate in the background, even when you are not on them. Android based device are the only rival to this feature.

The biggest disadvantage of the Blackberry is definitely using the web browser; optimized sites can take up to 10 seconds to load, three times longer than on the iphone. Another major disadvantage is the complexity for developers to build applications, which leads to lesser applications for Blackberry users.  Perhaps on piece of advice would be to stop changing their screensizes…that would be a start.

The Blackberry Torch 9800 is not necessarily a better Blackberry, or a competitor to phones running more sophisticated touch operating systems like Apple iphone, but similar to previous Blackberry devices, it will continue to definitely satisfy business users.

What does all of this mean for the Smartphone market?
The competition is tight in the Smartphone market and each of the companies are coming up with new solutions and strategies to target users and increase their market share.

Microsoft’s first attempt to come back to the market has been fair with having been more user centric and allowing users to use what they want; however, to survive they have to advance further.
Android seems to be a strong and aggressive competitor to all; however, it is suspected that security issues will withhold many users from using Android.
RIM should also rethink some of its strategies and definitely work on the usability factor of “Mobility” as their phones have lost their edge in that category and are becoming “chatter-boxes”, quite sophisticated ones though.
It seems Apple is still leading the way and will be running to swallow market share by offering acceptable security, privacy, ease of use, elegance, creativity, and beauty in design.  Apple seems to be an expert when it comes to one of the most important factors of the future of Mobile Technologies: “Usability combined with simplicity”.  The question now becomes, “How long will this suffice, before the next breakthrough technology dominates the market?”