photo credit: magic_quote

The story is just too far fetched.  A drunk drops his phone, won’t return any calls, then the phone finds its way to Gizmodo.  Bullshit.  Here’s why:

1. Apple’s iPad buzz is dead and it needed to get back in the headlines.  There was a lot of hype before everybody tried the thing out, but that’s gone.  It’s a big iPod Touch.  We all realize that.  Sure, a lot of suckers bought it, but the revolution didn’t come.  But perhaps that’s because we’re not sitting close enough to the WiFi.
2. The iPhone allure is dying.  Apple’s products attempt to be luxury, high-end devices (so Apple can charge more).  That gimmick doesn’t work when everybody has one.  If the iPhone is supposed to be the phone of the savvy and successful, you can’t put it in the hands of a Domino’s delivery driver.
3. The iPhone OS 4 announcement fell flat.  Wallpapers and multi-tasking?  That’s so Android 2.1.  Get with it, Apple.  When it was first released, the iPhone was a revolutionary device, but since then the updates have been incremental and boring.  Mostly because …
4. Apple can’t compete with HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, etc. all at once.  They competition is just putting phones out too fast for Apple to respond.  Every phone starting with the Motorola Droid has had better specs than the iPhone 3Gs.  Hell, Verizon’s HTC Droid Eris is just as good and $0.01 on Amazon.  HTC alone has released a half-dozen phones in the last few months, all of them more impressive than the 3Gs, and Apple has announced nothing except wallpapers and fake multi-task.  Apple just can’t keep up because …
5. The burden of the closed system is starting to crush Apple.  The backlash is mounting and it’s just not going to work out in their favor (just like last time when Apple tried this fight with Windows).  Jobs can say that he’s keeping the walls around iTunes to keep out the porn, but that’s a lie.  The walls are up so that Apple makes more money.  And it’s not just the phone and the OS that are strangling Apple.
6. It’s the network.  A T&T has taken too many hits  for it to recover.  It’s bloodied and wounded and Apple can’t afford to be tied to it any longer, but because AT&T subsidies are so lucrative, Apple has overstayed its welcome and screwed its customers in its own self interest.  The customer base is ripe for rebellion.

So, long story short, Google Android is catching up.  Their growth rate is phenomenal (their market share more than doubled from 11/09-02/10).  The phones running Android are impressive and feature-rich and are found on Verizon’s huge and Sprint’s super-fast networks.  On top of that, they are cheaper.  Price, flexibility, and choice are all stacked against Apple.  They’ve lost this battle before, and their leaked phone ploy shows they realize that they’re losing it again.