Apple's iPhone haunts 3GSM

Smell of vapourware

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 15th February 2007 18:52 GMT

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3GSM It must be a little galling if you go all the way to Barcelona to present a shiny new range of phones, many with music players, only to be asked questions about a competitor who has yet to show anyone an actual product.

But that is just what most of the handset makers faced at the 3GSM show. Nokia's chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo looked peeved when asked what he thought of the iPhone. Admittedly Nokia has had a difficult time in the US but it also knows a bit about making devices which are usable and well-liked by their users.

Next up was Samsung which introduced four phones in very different form factors including the world's thinnest phone. And if Apple is also given credit for its marketing and advertising you can't critcise Samsung for not trying. It wrapped the 16-storey Rey Juan Carlos Hotel in an enormous poster of its new phones along with a good proportion of Barcelona's trams and buses.

But still one of the first questions after the presentation was "what about the iPhone".

The answer was: "You see our products as they are. It is traditional for Samsung not to talk too much about competitors." - which might be Korean for "These are real bloody phones! And who the hell is this upstart, Apple?" ®

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