7 Potential Apple iPhone killers

Samsung's iPhone killer, the Instinct, isn't about to amazeanyone. The phone is little more than an iPhone knockoff, right down tothe blank black face and chrome trim--a disappointment from a companythat shouldn't stoop to knock off anyone.

Worse yet, the phone's look--and $199 retail price--invites comparisonto a competitor the Instinct doesn't match. Unlike the new iPhone, theInstinct lacks wi-fi, has less memory and its touch-sensitive interfaceis less sophisticated.

Next up, Google, another company with an inside track atApple. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt holds a seat on Apple'sboard. And he's admitted that he's had to sit out some meetings, withGoogle readying an effort to pump its software into Internet-friendlyphones due in the fourth quarter from such manufacturers as HTC,Samsung and LG Electronics.

At first glance, Google's so-called Android effort poses quite athreat, since Google has a host of online services it can pour into thehandsets. The challenge: timing. By the time the first of thesehandsets arrive, Apple could already be synonymous with Web-friendlyphones.

This was an iPhone knockoff before there was an iPhone toknock off. In other words, it's no knockoff. HTC's engineers toiledlong and hard to design a touch-sensitive smart phone, only to seeSteve Jobs launch a phone, weeks later, incorporating many of the sameideas.

And while the Touch hasn't matched the iPhone's hype, it hints that HTCmay be the company with the best odds of one day cranking out a handsetthat knocks Steve Jobs & Co. on their butts.

This phone is a chunky monkey. But it packs some prettyamazing capabilities into a hefty package, like a five-megapixel camerawith a fancy Carl Zeiss lens.

Couple that with a capable media player, slick blogging software and abroad selection of games, and this phone is a radically differentapproach to building a media-friendly phone, compared with the iPhone.

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