Apple 3G iPhone / Samsung i900 Omnia comparison - Cellucity

<strong>Apple</strong> <strong>3G</strong> <strong>iPhone</strong> / <strong>Samsung</strong> <strong>i900</strong> <strong>Omnia</strong> <strong>comparison</strong><br />

Specification sheet

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Important Considerations<br />

1. Navigation<br />

Both products have integrated GPS units. The <strong>iPhone</strong> does not come with a licensed Navigation software<br />

package, and so uses a streamed mapping solution (Google Maps currently). It is important to<br />

understand that these mapping solutions require substantial data to be streamed in real time when in<br />

use. This pushes potentially significant costs on to the customer when the service is being used. Google<br />

maps from a mobile perspective suits the American market substantially better than the South African<br />

one due to their ‘all you can eat’ data plans.<br />

The <strong>i900</strong> will be included in the ongoing strategic partnership with Garmin in South Africa. This provides<br />

a licensed mapping solution for the life of the product, which will incur no additional data costs to the<br />

customer when used for navigation.<br />

It is worth noting that the Google Maps application is free, and a Windows Mobile version is available.<br />

This means the <strong>i900</strong> can offer what the <strong>iPhone</strong> currently offers, as well as the additional full mapping<br />

solution from Garmin.<br />

Google maps currently do not have comprehensive coverage in South Africa.<br />

2. Business Features<br />

The <strong>3G</strong> <strong>iPhone</strong> was launched with great hype as “the best phone for business….EVER” due to its support<br />

for push mail, document management, open operating system and device management. Below we<br />

examine each of these elements:<br />

(i) Push Mail<br />

<strong>Apple</strong> now offer a push mail solution called mobileME. This service is available through <strong>Apple</strong> for $99 US<br />

per annum. For this you get 20 Gigabytes of online storage for your email solution. It is very much a<br />

consumer offering, and is not suited to Enterprise customers. The <strong>iPhone</strong> now supports Microsoft’s<br />

Exchange ActiveSync.<br />

The <strong>i900</strong> natively supports ActiveSync, as it is part of the Microsoft suite of solutions for the business<br />

professional. As such, push mail and real-time synchronization of your email, contacts, tasks and<br />

calendar are provided.<br />

This push mail solution from Microsoft carries no additional costs to the consumer (apart from<br />

associated data costs). The only enterprise requirement for this solution is that they have a Microsoft<br />

Exchange server (Exchange 2003 with Service Pack 2 is required) installed. Most enterprise customers<br />

are already using this solution, and so no additional costs will be incurred to utilize this solution.<br />

<strong>Apple</strong> is proud of their full HTML supported email – so your email will arrive in exactly the same format<br />

in which it was sent. Windows Mobile 6.1 supports HTML mail, and as such will provide the same user<br />

experience.

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(ii) Document Management<br />

<strong>Apple</strong> have built in support for the Microsoft Office suite. Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents can<br />

be viewed on the device.<br />

The <strong>i900</strong> is a Windows Mobile Professional device, and as such offers viewing capabilities for Word,<br />

PowerPoint and Excel similar to the <strong>iPhone</strong>, but significantly, these document types can be edited on the<br />

device too.<br />

(iii) Operating System<br />

The <strong>iPhone</strong> operating system is now”Open” in that it supports 3 rd party developed applications. This<br />

puts it into the powerful “Smartphone” category of devices. Many applications should become available<br />

in the coming months for the <strong>iPhone</strong>.<br />

Windows Mobile has 10s of thousands of applications already available. It was strategically important<br />

for Microsoft to deliver the same model on a mobile device that they have on the desktop for many<br />

years with clear success. From a Microsoft perspective, the focus with Windows Mobile has always been<br />

application driven instead of hardware or technology driven.<br />

(iv) Device Management<br />

Remote device management is becoming more important for the enterprise. The <strong>iPhone</strong> supports<br />

remote device management, including:<br />

� Remotely enforceable security policies<br />

� VPN<br />

� Remote device configuration<br />

� Remote device wipe<br />

Windows Mobile 6.1 supports all of the above, with additional remote management capabilities such<br />

as remote application installation etc.<br />

3. Pricing<br />

The <strong>iPhone</strong> launch event has caused significant confusion about the price of the device. The<br />

announcement indicated the 8 gig version of the <strong>iPhone</strong> would sell for $199 US and the 16 gig for $ 299<br />

US. What the announcement did not disclose, is that the quoted prices are pay-in prices, assuming a 2<br />

year, $30 per month contract with AT&T in the US.<br />

Vodafone in Italy have shown pre-paid prices for the <strong>iPhone</strong> and they are: 8 Gig - 499 Euro and 16 Gig –<br />

569 Euro.<br />

This link is the English translated version of the page:<br />

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&langpair=it%7Cen&u=http://www.iphone.vodafone.it/

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The indicative pricing for the <strong>i900</strong> is directly competitive with the <strong>iPhone</strong> pricing on both 8GB and 16GB<br />

versions. Obviously we will monitor “actual” SA Rand pricing once we can get access to this information,<br />

and will market our unit(s) accordingly.<br />

Key Points Summary<br />

Technology: The <strong>i900</strong> has a higher specification than the <strong>iPhone</strong> in almost every category. The only<br />

significant technology supported by the iPHone that is not supported by the <strong>i900</strong>, is their “Multi-touch”<br />

touch-screen technology. The <strong>i900</strong> will offer the “TouchWiz” solution found on the F480 by <strong>comparison</strong>,<br />

as well as the well known Windows Mobile interface.<br />

Navigation: Both products offer full navigation solutions, with the <strong>i900</strong> offering a more comprehensive,<br />

as well as more cost-effective solution for consumers.<br />

Business: <strong>Apple</strong> says: “The best phone for business. Ever.” This is not at all the case. Windows Mobile<br />

offers everything that <strong>Apple</strong> does with their product, and significantly more – Document Editing, remote<br />

management tools etc.<br />

Pricing: The initial prices quoted at the <strong>iPhone</strong> launch were confusing and have created a misconception<br />

in the market about the actual cost of the product. The <strong>i900</strong> should compete directly with the <strong>3G</strong> <strong>iPhone</strong><br />

from a price perspective.