(Column) - I'm depressed to be associated with the tech industry from time to time. It's so predictable, so stale, so annoying sometimes. Remember all those iPod Killers that showed up and attempted to dethrone the world's leading music player. Well, needless to say, it didn't happen, and nobody came close to demolishing the ever successful, iconic device, despite it's not-so-excellent audio quality. But enough about that. Yes, nobody cares, and people have forgotten. If anything, we are disappointingly amused at the next iPod Killer. It's old, boring news. Nothing exciting. We ought to move on, right? Perhaps not.

The mobile industry is about to embark on grabbing the same type of headlines with none other than Apple's iPhone. Again, thanks to Apple's first mover advantage, it's going to become another icon, regardless of how many features competing phones might propose and promise. They won't be cool enough, and we all know perception is everything in consumer electronics. If you don't have the hottest gadget in town, you need to get with the game, and get one. After all, you don't want to be the only one without the iPhone, do you?

Apple: At the Mercy of Record Labels

So, needless to say, Nokia, LG, Samsung or whoever else is about to release an iPhone replica is going to be disappointed. Very disappointed. And yes, they are all going to be called replicas from now on. It doesn't matter how many engineers and product designers you had working on your "innovative," "next-generation" phone, everybody is going to mock it and call it the iPhone Killer. Get used to it, you will be hearing a lot of people compare your creation to Apple's killer (literally) device over the coming years. This is what you get when you aren't willing to shake the industry, be entrepreneurial, take calculated risks, and let the cool company lead the industry. Steve Jobs may be a crazy boss, but he understands consumers and their behavior pattern. Are you seriously telling me the world's largest mobile company, Nokia, doesn't have insight into its users minds? Really?

I'll call it quits, and would just like to propose a few words of wisdom to our favorite marketing people. Guys, I wouldn't even mention the iPhone in the same breath (or press release, for that matter) as your latest creation. With CES coming up shortly, don't please the media by bashing the iPhone. We know it's limited in features, we know you are going to try to outmatch the features list, we know you are going to make claims and back them up with substantial proof. Guess what? It doesn't matter. Not a single bit. It's not that we don't love you. We do. Very much so. But there's just no way you can add that special touch, that magic the entire industry is buzzing about, unless of course you have an iJobs somewhere in your R&D facility. Then again, that would be a far bigger news than whatever you are launching anyways. My advice: keep it simple, keep it real, and forget about competing against Apple. You've already lost the battle, and your future attempts at doing so will scream desperation. Let it go, and see if you can innovate the next iPod, iPhone or whatever else Apple might beat you against in the third round.

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