The Game Is Afoot

Ah the winds of change are coming in the cell phone market...

I have to say it...although regretfully...that it is Apple's fault...
(For the record I am for the most part anti-apple. They tend to be very pompous in their attitude even towards their consumers and especially against those that do not consume their products.)

That being said....Apple has started a new way to buy cell phones...yes they are still linked to a network but they have taken the first step in breaking away from the old model. Apple now has people buying phones from their stores. Soon hopefully we will move to the model that is prominent in Europe where you will buy your phone separately from your service. This will hopefully open up more competition and drive down prices.

Apple has also raised the bar with the iphone. Granted the iphone has some lackluster qualities...but the hardware is great. The fact that Apple has had over a year and a 2nd generation phone dropped with no copy and paste is just asinine. This is one of those reasons I dislike apple.

But as the saying goes...the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Apple with the iphone raising the bar has made other phone companies increase the qualities of their products...this is again good for the consumer.

One of these I think that has benefited from this Research in Motion and their famed Blackberry. They are on the verge of releasing the Bold in the states and a month away from releasing a touch screen and flip phone version. Now I dont think RIM would have pushed for a touch screen had it not been for Apple.

I personally am looking forward to the flip blackberry (codenamed kickstart). I already have the pearl and think that a flip version will be a great marketing decision for RIM.

Oh well that is my rant for now...I await like many others for Apple to have their little event on sept 9th? As much as I dislike them they do currently set the bar.