Is $AAPL ‘closing down’ the smartphone market?

• Posted by Chris Selland
• on October 27th, 2009

Read an interesting post from Ultimi Barbarorum musing on whether $AAPL is ‘closing down’ the smartphone market.

I doubt it.

Clearly as I mentioned the other day, $AAPL is hitting on all cylinders right now.   But you could also argue (I would) that it’s priced for perfection.

Yes $RIMM is badly wounded and $PALM is just about done.

But HTC’s failure to make a large impact has, in my opinion, much more to do with its relationship with $MSFT’s dated and increasingly irrelevant Windows Phone (née Windows Mobile) than it does with $GOOG’s Android.

I could, of course, be wrong – but I see Android as a huge opportunity for $GOOG and partners such as $VZ & $DT’s T-Mobile (who knows, maybe even $S).  While first-generation Android devices received a lukewarm response, the latest phones such as the HTC Hero and the Droid are garnering rave reviews.

Of course, if Android succeeds, it will do far less damage to $AAPL than it does to $RIMM and $PALM (not to mention $MSFT).  And that success will open up the next battle – which has already started – between $GOOG’s online services (Gmail, Picasa, etc…) and $AAPL’s MobileMe.

In any case, the market wants alternatives – and I want a real keyboard.

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