I am an Apple fan. However, I am a bigger fan of ingenuity and innovation. I think the mobile platform marketplace should be a place of competition. Not one where Apple is leading and inventing, and everyone else is copying. I would love to see a marketplace where companies went head to head, each creating their own new technologies. Thus giving us, the consumer, a legitimate choice between two technologies, not one technology and its copies.

Apple spent 2 years on developing the iPhone. The copiers need only 3 months for a physical look-alike, and 9 months for a good Android copy.

BUT, that’s copying the device in hand; they’ll need three years of hard, loss leader work to match the ecosystem; in fact, it’s probable that no one will match the ecosystem, marketing, retail, and combativeness of Apple. Not on this planet.

I think Apple will dominate all of mobile computing by 2013: 30% of the revenue, 60% of the profit.

2013 market cap: $700mm

HTC agreed to “license” Microsoft’s patents, but I’d guess that the fee was more quid pro quo – Microsoft would offer up their patent portfolio (and get a PR win), and HTC would agree to actually produce Windows-based phones.

Point well taken regarding what the actual DPI of what some display devices may be. On the other hand, if desktops go multitouch, the users will be in greater proximity. In any case, I think everyone is going to want a “retina display” on their device.

On software side, iPhone doesn’t have widgets and FaceBook/Twitter sync with address book.

I don’t agree about 300 DPI becoming the new “standard” for all types of displays. The iPhone screen, like a laser-printed page, is meant to be held about 12 inches from the eyes when viewed. A typical distance for a computer screen is about twice that distance (or more). Therefore about 160 DPI would be equivalent to the new iPhones 326 DPI, at computer screen distance. The 27-inch iMac is already at about 110 DPI. It would be a waste to make a desktop display with 300 DPI pixel density. Laptops screen are often used a bit closer, so they may need to get up to about 200 DPI to have the same effect. The point is to make individual pixels indistinguishable, and the needed density of pixels depends on the distance from eyes to screen.

There are some great HTC phones, and android has come a long way very quickly. Still, for now, I think the iPhone 4 is the best phone on the market, or will be when it is released. Who knows, HTC seem to be releasing a phone a month, maybe they will have something better soon, but bigger screens, more camera MP is not going to cut it.