...'clones':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_8wuVEYMZ8

Please please PLEASE send at least this bit of the story to some of these phone manufacturers:

"Whatever you think of the iPhone - you can read our view here - it has raised the bar for smoothly running, intuitive to use handset user interfaces."

I'm sick and tired of all of the r&d going into pretty boxes, and me-too feature lists.

Apple and the i-phone are successful because the phone works and is easy to use. The clones will look similar but I guarantee they won't work. For instance, the last Samsung I had, the MP3 player supported a 1GB memory card, but only 20 songs in a playlist. not so bad, but it only allowed 2 playlists!

I've just bought a nokia 6300, and am so chuffed, it has almost no features but works a treat on calls and messages :o)

So what! The others are jumping on the bandwagen because they've hardkly got an original idea between them, but they STILL won't get it right.

Instead of things just working the way the user wants them to - simply and good looking, it'll be double click this, scroll down to that and feck about with the other - just like normal.

Sure if the price is right and no encumberances (like 18 month ridiculously priced contracts and Bricking updates) and must do the basics well. Assuming of course they will have replacement batteries freely available as a DIY job!

Innovations can spur competition.

This one's been available for a couple of months now:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5179

..... if they do not function as slick as the iPhone. It is a simple job to make a handset that looks like the iPhone. But what Apple have perfected, as they always do, is the HCI functionality. That is something that, for example, the LG Prada fails on miserably - it is "Touch" but that is all. The interface is miserable to use, flaky at best, clunky, imprecise, you name it. Contrast the iPhone's HCI which is spot on, intuitive, accurate and very quick.

I look forward to see what the other manufacturers do - but with Apple's patents on their Touch technology it will be hard to match, and impossible to beat.