"Not to drink too much of the Kool-Aid," said Josh Quittner in Time, "but the question has to be asked: Can anything stop Apple's iPhone?" Apple has slashed the price of last year's 3G model to $99, and introduced the new iPhone 3G S, which can edit video and do other things other smart phones—including latest iPhone challenger, Palm's Pre—can only dream of. "Apple's competition is that speck you now see in the rearview mirror."
It's possible to live without an iPhone, said Farhad Manjoo in Slate. The 3G S is essentially the same as the old 3G, only faster. Palm's Pre and other competitors—including the many phones based on Google's Android OS, due out later this year—are worthy challengers. But one thing gives Apple what might be an insurmountable edge—the more than 50,000 applications in the iPhone apps store, which puts Google's 5,000 apps and Palm's "comically small" list of 18 apps to shame.
Pre's features nevertheless match up well against the iPhone's, said Daniel Ionescu in PC World. Both have 3-megapixel cameras, for example. Yes, the 3G S' video capabilities are a plus, and with Apple's price cuts you get more memory for your dollar with the iPhone. But "AT&T did not reduce its iPhone tariffs, so the Pre on Sprint still offers more for the buck when it comes to data, voice, and text plans."
