Software Big Gun In Smartphone Battle

There’s been a smartphone war raging since Apple debuted its original iPhone in 2007, knocking more than a few tenured handset makers on their collective behinds and nearly burying one (Palm).

Two years later, Apple is still charging forward, gaining ground and making its sole carrier AT&T very, very happy while Palm’s banking that its Pre and snazzy Web OS will do the same for not only its bottom line, but for struggling carrier Sprint as well.

Enterprise player, and now a viable consumer BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (which partners with both Verizon Wireless and AT&T), is watching the landscape with a keen eye. Up until Pre debuted last week, RIM’s Storm was the lone legitimate iPhone contender as it offered up a touch-screen instead of that loved QWERTY keyboard and was RIM’s second handset to provide 3G connectivity.

But the battle for the hearts and minds of smartphone users is far from a done deal.

As experts have said over and over, it isn’t just fast Web access and sleek sexy handsets that users want. It’s a device’s applications and ease of use that will win hearts over. And it isn’t quantity, but quality, that counts.

As of this past April, there were 35,000 iPhone apps and current reports put that number close to 50,000. Meanwhile RIM and Palm debuted new stores at the end of 2008 and offer nowhere near as many software offerings.

The iPhone app of the week is Rolando that lets users tilt and tap their way through physics puzzles and interactive environments to save Rolandoland from invasion.

But numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Not for nothing, but whom, except those under house arrest, have the time to parse through 35,000 different applications or enjoy more than a handful on a daily basis?

What users want and need is necessary, secure and stable software that lets them surf, chat, email with ease, download tunes without jumping through hoops and upgrade with little fanfare.

Hmmm, that likely leaves about 34,985 offerings that do everything but that in Apple’s App Store at this point.

Sure, I love a fun game now and then. And yes, I badly want an iPhone. But will I ever have the time to keep up on the newest and greatest entertainment app or calendar widget? Nope.

So don’t count out the potential that Palm or RIM or Nokia have in the smartphone battle.