The Iphone vs. Android battle isn’t the same fight Windows vs. Linux is.   All the stats tell us that the smart phone market is growing rapidly.  While it is accepted the Iphone is the single best selling smart phone handset, its OS has been only used on 1 handset which could ultimately limit it’s growth.  With the swift emergence on the Android OS on several upcoming handsets we can expect a number of significant advances in the presentation layer of Android.

One such example is the recent announcement of the HTC hero:

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hero_joins_the_android_bandwagon_with_a_custom_ui-news-988.php

http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/htc-hero-unlocked/4505-6452_7-33702036.html

There are 4 main things that make Iphone a success:

1. Apple’s marketing machine.
2. Great handset
3. Intuitive UI
4. Thousands of apps on the App Store

There are 4 main reasons that will negate the list above:

1. Since Android will be distributed through the Samsung, Sony, HTC etc…. you can expect a cumulative effort on the marketing front.
2. Apple is a close ecosystem.  For their mobile OS to really spread it’s wings, it will need to take a lot more significant steps than previously demonstrated.   these steps could be possible if the OS was deployed on multiple handsets.
3. The App store is filled with duplicate applications and software which could hardly be construed as useful.  The open source community has been getting behind Android and I suspect we’ll see rapid deployment of Android applications, probably at a rate which would outpace the App Store.
4. HTC’s G1 and G2 aren’t great looking handsets, but we know the list below of major manufacturers have a great chance of producing at least 2 or 3 handsets which are better than the Iphone.

• Acer Inc.
• ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
• Garmin International, Inc.
• HTC Corporation
• Huawei Technologies
• LG Electronics, Inc.
• Motorola, Inc.
• Samsung Electronics
• Sony Ericsson
• Toshiba Corporation