don’t like the rules? make up new ones

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Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone
Stories like this make me smile and laugh at all the companies that try to imitate Apple’s innovation (yes, imitating innovation is an oxymoron).
The key to competing with a company like Apple is not to try to match their products, because what you create will be inherently derivative. It’s like keeping your attention on the person you’re racing against instead of the road you’re running on. You’re bound to slam into a wall or fall into a pothole.
What you have to do it think about the product category you plan on working in and figure out what doesn’t already exist and build that.
Although the similarities between the Palm Pre and the iPhone are strong, what’s so refreshing about the Pre is the features that Palm has created that don’t currently exist on the iPhone such as running multiple applications at once, copy & paste and global search functionality within the OS.
If you haven’t watched the Palm Pre Keynote, have a look (the good stuff starts at Chapter 4).
So while dozens of companies are jumping on the mobile bandwagon and focusing all their attention on making iPhone competitors, Apple is – as usual – years ahead of everyone by focusing on making an innovative product and not merely something that competes with current mobile paradigms.
Don’t like Apple’s game? Make up your own game and play by your own rules.