Not long ago that I praised the iPhone, and I still think it to be the best mobilephone available for the money! Nothing has changed there, and I was happy that my boss told me when he wanted me to have one. Sadly the latest moves from Apple have made me decide not to get one when it becomes available in Norway. Have you ever heard of a smartphone that is completly locked? Not only in terms of providers, but also on terms of what software you can run? Apple could have the best mobile platform, simply by opening it up for third part developers, but no … My god I laughed when I saw Nokia’s latest campaign, with slogans suchas, “Phones should be open to anything” and, ”The best devices have no limits”. Two direct messages to Apple and the people that consider buying an iPhone.

It was with joy I read that Nokia was buying NAVTEQ, another great move on telling Apple which tells actually gonna design the next generation smartphones.

Which brings me to the solutions/features that iPhone is lacking: UMTS, HSDPA and GPS. UMTS is something I take for granted, even subsidised phones for 1 NOK have it! Another big announcement from Nokia, was their upcoming N8xx device, now finally with inbuilt GPS and QWERTY keyboard. Perhaps I finally have found my Sharp Zaurus replacement?

Also HTC introduced a few new models yesterday, but other than the TYTN 2, they seem not to have come up with anything that can be said called “new”, except that the P6500 has got a fingerprint scanner. That model doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard that most HTC phones come with. At last a company that starts thinking a bit more on data security on mobile devices.

The best thing that can be said about Apple and their iPhone, is that they have forced the other vendors to be more inovative. And Nokia has answered …