Without a doubt, Apple’s iPhone has revolutionized the wireless industry. Let’s face it; Apple designed a breathtakingly beautiful phone with a best-in-class touch screen user interface and mobile operating system. Not surprisingly, the Apple iPhone has been selling like hotcakes, and since it is an AT&T exclusive, the other providers and handset makers had to deliver iPhone alternatives to remain competitive. Consequently, Verizon launched the LG Dare and Blackberry Storm. Sprint released the Samsung Instinct (with the Palm Pre Slated for June). Finally, T-Mobile announced the first Google Android handset, the G1. How do they fair? We detail the strength and weakness of each device.
LG Dare
 The LG Dare. is an impressive handset that easily falls into the elite feature phone category. The device has a number of standout features including a vibrant touch screen display (with haptic feedback) that actually enables the user to drag and drop icons for easy UI customization. In addition, The LG Dare. includes a iPhone-like QWERTY keyboard, a drawing pad for not taking, and a full HTML browser. With its 3.2 megapixel camera, the LG Dare. easily surpasses the other feature phones in regards to photo quality.
Pros: 3.2 megapixel camera, responsive touch screen, decent battery life for a feature phone, excellent call quality, GPS and EVDO Rev A connectivity.
Cons: No Wi-Fi, clumsy touch screen implementation with Internet Browser, lacks non-virtual QWERTY keyboard (a la Blackberry), less than stellar Email implementation.
Learn more about the LG Dare.
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Samsung Instinct
 Another iPhone competitor, the Samsung Instinct, has been one of Sprints most successful feature phone to date. Like the LG Dare, the Samsung Instinct offers a responsive touch screen with haptic feedback. It also offers some unique features such as Visual Voicemail, which allow users to listen to voicemail message in any order from a list on the voicemail screen.
Pros: Responsive and intuitive touch screen user interface and operating system, GPS and multimedia.
Cons: Clunky/slow Internet browser, no Wi-Fi, no Instant Messaging, subpar video quality and no way to sync calendars.
Learn more about the Samsung Instinct.
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T-Mobile G1
 The T-Mobile G1 is, without a doubt, the closest competitor to the iPhone in terms of conceptual design. Unlike the LG Dare and Samsung Instinct, the G1 and iPhone are part of a much larger development ecosystem. In other words, both phones operate on a software platform that enables users to download 3rd party software that can dramatically enhance the devices functionality. While the iPhone operating system is proprietary to Apple, the T-Mobile G1 utilizes a Google Android OS, which is open source. (Although the T-Mobile G1 is the first handset to employ this new Google operating system, there should be many more handsets in the near future form different manufactures and wireless provides that offer this OS.)
Pros: Touch screen, Wi-Fi, web browsing, 3 megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, Access to Google Applications (including a best-in-class implementation of Google Maps).
Cons: Lacks video Playback, no UMA, no 3.5 headset jack, no MS Exchange and desktop sync.
Learn more about the T-Mobile G1.
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BlackBerry Storm
 RIM responded to challenge posed by the iPhone with a device that has the potential to take the touchscreen scene by Storm. RIM combined the best attributes of its popular BlackBerry Smartphones with a touchscreen design. The fruit of this fusion emerged as the BlackBerry Stom with its 3.2 inch 'clickable' touch-screen. This iPhone alternative carries an impressive a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash, variable zoom, and auto focus. The BlackBerry Storm also offers the generous feature set offered by BlackBerry devices such as Bluetooth, full HTML browser, mobile push email, GPS, music player, and high-speed EV-DO Rev. A data.
Pros:'clickable' touch-screen,3.2-megapixel camera, GPS, high speed data
Cons:No Wi-Fi, large size, average web browser, inferior media playback
Learn more about the BlackBerry Stom.
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Palm Pre
After losing their market share to stylish Smartphones and sexy touchscreen handsets, Palm decided to come up with a high-end Smartphone and a new OS that will restore them to their former glory. The result is the impressive Palm Pre touchscreen Smartphone than runs on the new webOS platform. This iPhone alternative features a stylish design and a touchscreen display that can compete with other high-end devices. The Palm Pre offers a potent combination of a 3.1" multitouch display and a full QWERTY keyboard. The upcoming Palm Pre also offers Wi-Fi, GPS, EV-DO Rev. A data, stereo Bluetooth and 8GB of internal memory.
Pros: 3MP camera with flash, powerful processor, multitouch screen, backlit QWERTY keyboard, multi-tasking
Cons: no higher capacity models, small display, no expandable memory, exclusive carrier
Learn more about the Palm Pre.
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Have you resisted the...
Have you resisted the lure of Apple's iPhone 3G thus far? Perhaps the massive Apple marketing machine has had no effect on you whatsoever, but this doesn't mean you can do without a media playing, web browsing smartphone, right?
Apple's iPhone 3G was released in Australia in July 2008 to fanfare unheard of for a mobile phone. When the device hit stores it seemed like the iPhone was the only handset people spoke about. There are, of course, alternatives.
Identifying iPhone alternatives is more than just listing other touchscreen smartphones. There are three main ways in which the iPhone excels. Firstly, it's a media player — the iPhone 3G's 3.5-inch display and excellent iPod component is a media monster, though if you're in the market for a phone that plays video files and music and sports huge internal storage then an LG's Arena or HTC Touch HD are also worth checking out. If it's an excellent touchscreen music playing mobile you're after check out Nokia's XpressMusic 5800.
Secondly, the iPhone performs well as a business device. Apple went to great pains before the release of the iPhone 3G to include important business software, like VPN support and Microsoft Exchange compatibility. It's still our opinion, though, that if you're in the market for a business handset you need a full QWERTY keyboard. Two of the best keyboards are found on Nokia's E71 and the BlackBerry Bold.
Lastly, perhaps the iPhone's most compelling appeal is as a tech fashion accessory. It's pointless to deny the sheer sex appeal of Apple's sleek smartphone and, depending on personal taste, the iPhone is still ahead of the field for having that intangible X-Factor. LG's Prada and Renoir, and Samsung's F480 are all gorgeous phones, but maybe not enough to lure the fashionistas away from Apple's gem.