On iPhone day, let’s talk about the others…

Friday, July 11. For most people, it’s a friday as any other. For Apple fans, however, it’s the big day. iPhone 3G release day. People are lining up to the store fronts, and talking about it on blogs and forums. There’s also the controversies, such as contract lengths, data plans, text messages, and other such details.

Meanwhile however, the world keeps turning. The fact remains that Apple only has 11% of the smartphone market, with RIM leading at 42%. So what are the other guys doing? There’s actually a lot of innovation and new interesting releases coming soon.

The first obvious thing is that companies have noticed what Apple has done. It’s obvious with all the new phones with the word “touch” in them. One of the most popular ones is the HTC Touch Diamond which just got updated. Samsung also has a popular device with a nice large touch screen called the Instinct.

Nokia in its usual way releases new smartphones every few months, with the N96 being the hot toy right now. On the business side, Blackberry has it’s Bold phone. CNet has a nice video review of some of these. And interestingly enough, it seems pretty much all of the manufacturers also got the idea that full screen, heavy multimedia web presentations is the way to go to advertise their devices.

As far as features go, again things have improved. 2-3MPx cameras used to be the norm a year ago, now most new smartphones are expected to have a 5MPx camera, usually with flash and auto-focus. Advanced image and video handling is also standard, and a full featured web browser is of course part of the standard features.

Wi-fi and 3G are also no longer things found only on a few models, and even FM radio chips are becoming a typical feature that many devices now throw in, just because. Most smartphones have either a touch screen, or a full QWERTY keyboard, with some models having both.

The smartphone market is very active and the road ahead is really exciting, with most device makers doing extra efforts to innovate and provide more to the customers. Unfortunately the network providers are still in the dark age, and that’s something Apple hasn’t managed to change (why, oh why didn’t they release an unlocked phone in the first place) with companies charging per text message, having capped data plans, and charging ridiculous fees. Thankfully with wi-fi becoming more ubiquitous it’s less of an issue, but that’s one area that could use some of that Apple influence right now.