Smartphone Industry with no Apple?

[QueenofScots]

Let's say Apple dies off in the late 1990s, and no butterflies until 2007. How would the smartphone industry look in alt-2017?

I would assume that Microsoft and Google are the two main players in the industry, Blackberry being a bit too small to keep up. The smartphones would look more like evolutions of the PowerPCs, but probably with no keyboards by 2017. Flip phones would probably still have a niche.

 

[nbcman]

Without Apple, Blackberry would maintain a larger market share than they have now. Blackberry wasn't too small - they only became too small because they failed to keep up technologically and got stomped. In fact, they had 10-20% of the global cell phone market in the mid to late 2000s. However, it would be a Google / Android world for casual users and a Blackberry world for business users if Blackberry managed to not screw up as bad as OTL.

 

[Coiler]

Would this leave an opening for firms who weren't major players IOTL to move in and grab substantial market share?

 

[QueenofScots]

Would this leave an opening for firms who weren't major players IOTL to move in and grab substantial market share?

Perhaps. Instead of Samsung being the major Android maker, another company like HTC, LG, or Motorola could be at number one.

 

[Justinian]

Zune would be king

 

[Archibald]

I remember when Sarkozy become president in 2007, blackberry was so overhyped back then, it was just like ray-bans. What happened to Blackberry, by the way , bankruptcy ?

 

[Behemoth]

I remember when Sarkozy become president in 2007, blackberry was so overhyped back then, it was just like ray-bans. What happened to Blackberry, by the way , bankruptcy ?

They're still around but not as popular as Apple or Android. However, they don't design their own phones anymore.

 

[Blue Vein CHEESE]

Apple's presence has led to increased competition and competition drives development, not just of devices but also related components. Also you don't have Apple's very marketing machine saying "this is the best device", pushing touchscreen-only devices.

So any change would depend on competition since 2007. It seems to me that blackberry-style devices (with physical keyboards) would have enjoyed increased popularity, and while touchscreen-only devices would probably exist I doubt they would be as popular.

Other things it would/might affect:

• ARM chip development
• TV boxes (Android TV, Apple TV)
• Raspberry pi