iPhone, BlackBerry, Pre Colliding In The Middle

It has become axiomatic that the difference between consumer and business technology is blurring, and nowhere is this more evident than in the area of handheld devices.

This confluence of consumer and business markets has also accelerated dramatically; it took dog years in Internet time for instant messaging to gain acceptance in the workplace, whereas it took Facebook less than a New York minute to accomplish the same jump. All of these tools are of course now available on every smartphone worthy of the name. This same phenomenon is now taking place in the mobile device market. While most people still carry both some kind of digital music player in addition to a mobile telephony device, vendors like Apple, Research in Motion and Palm are creating products that satisfy both needs, although they are coming from opposite ends of the marketing spectrum.

RIM and Palm's handheld devices were initially marketed as business tools allowing customers to provide employees with mobile access to corporate email, calendars, documents, and applications allowing them to log sales reports or time sheets from afar. Apple, on the other hand, marketed the iPhone as a joyous device that would enhance people's existence on an almost spiritual level.

Each group is now racing to occupy territory claimed by the other. RIM and Palm have created "app stores" in frank imitation of Apple's iTunes online store of applications, allowing customers to pick from a myriad of tools that enhance the basic features of their devices. All three rely on outside developers to create a critical mass of applications to meet an insatiable demand for everything from business tools to applications that make farting noises. RIM is further challenging Apple's space by launching a music store for its BlackBerry.

Apple is meanwhile moving into the business market it initially foreswore. After feigning disinterest in the business market, it provided an interface allowing customers to connect iPhones to their enterprise email servers, and recently allowed Good Technologies to provide customers with business-oriented security and remote management tools. Microsoft let slip that it will soon make Office tools available on the iPhone. Once that becomes reality, customers could view the iPhone as a business tool on a par with the BlackBerry or the Pre.

Speaking of Palm, it has sacrificed its entire line of existing handhelds on the altar of the Pre, which, if it fails to live up to expectations, could easily spell the end of the company as an independent entity. Rumors have resurfaced that Dell may be interested in acquiring Palm; the computer maker recently abandoned plans to market its own device after it got panned by carriers who got an early look.

The smartphone market remains hot in part because mobile products may be one expenditure customers can't afford to cut, especially as workforce reductions require remaining employees to be even more productive. These devices mean workers can be summoned at any time of day or night. In North America last year, smartphone sales grew by 69%, according to analyst firm Gartner.

RIM, Apple and Palm -- assuming it survives -- won't have the field to themselves for long. Vendors like Motorola, Samsung, LG and HTC are seizing on Android, the Google-sponsored open source operating system, as a means of leapfrogging into contention for those same customers.

Last but certainly not least, Nokia, which owns 40% of the worldwide smartphone market, is beginning a serious push in the United States. It is using the open-source Symbian operating system to introduce new features of its own, as well as, naturally, a new app store.