The selection available in the mobile phones market is rapidly becoming less hardware dependent and more software dependent over time. Unlike the personal computing market, where the vast majority of users are selecting a machine based on hardware capability believing they will get the best user experience that is available, the choice of mobile phones is heavily geared towards the whole user interface experience.
Apple may not have started this entire process, but they have clearly shouted the loudest about it and have heavily influenced the marketplace through a combination of making this noise and offering a still unbeaten user interface. Android, from Google, is the system that is most likely to challenge this market leading status and clearly possess the muscle to take this challenge to Apple.
Android version 2.2 is reportedly being tested on mobile phones right now, which means a launch date is most likely looming. Android already offers the ability to multitask in a way that iPhones cannot. Benefits of the new 2.2 version of the Android software are reported to improve the efficiency of the operating system by as much as 250% and offer the ability to automatically update app software.
Apple is clearly not resting on its laurels and has real strength in its unchallenged 100,000+ apps available for the iPhone. For the G-mail user on the iPhone, OS 4 will rectify one of the limitations of using G-mail on the iPhone. The current inability to use the Gmail Archive feature will be resolved with this new OS upgrade.