"Apple came out with an entirely different way of using a phone, " says Greengart.
HTC, which has won broad U.S. distribution in the past two years, is "relatively safe, " says Greengart.
Handset makers working with open-source operating systems like Android only have three ways to customize phones, notes Greengart.
Greengart pointed out that many high-profile Palm staffers came from Apple and have specific notions about product design.
"There's tremendous pressure on things that aren't designed for data plans, " says Greengart.
Avi Greengart, principal mobile-device analyst for Current Analysis, says an injunction is likely.
Only about 25% of Verizon Wireless customers have V Cast-capable phones, says Avi Greengart, analyst for research firm Current Analysis.
The Incite, which went on sale in late 2008, "brought nothing new to the table, " wrote Greengart in a recent report.
"They would rather get you as a customer than potentially get download revenue, " notes Avi Greengart, a mobile-device analyst at Current Analysis.
That makes Apple a challenger more in mindshare than marketshare, says Greengart.
"If you have a phone that's getting millions in ads and subsidies and lots of buzz, your sales will be fine, " says Greengart.
Their recent products, including the Treo Pro and Motorola ZINE ZN5, are noteworthy but not part of the buzzy, heavily subsidized category, says Greengart.
Since hardware can be copied quickly and pricing is largely controlled by mobile operators, software is the most reliable strategy to pursue, Greengart adds.
"Microsoft has had more success with mobile operating systems than in mobilizing its Internet properties, " says Avi Greengart, research director of mobile devices at Current Analysis.
And in these grim times, consumers are likely to go for all or nothing, opting for either a free phone or a pricey smart phone, Greengart predicts.
With their internal antennae, color displays, Bluetooth connectivity and digital cameras, these handsets "would be considered upper-mid-tier as recently as a year or two ago, " Greengart notes.
Hettick and Greengart recommend that Netflix also include a feature in the application that tells users exactly how large their movie files are, so they can gauge their bandwidth use.
"A Google phone could change the economics of what a phone is, how you get it and whether you pay for it, " says Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis.
Pinched wallets are putting the so-called feature phone--which includes a camera, Bluetooth, text messaging and Web surfing capabilities--at risk, says Avi Greengart, research director of mobile devices at Current Analysis.
On the danger list, according to Greengart: Kyocera and Sanyo, which haven't garnered much carrier support in the U.S. "Their phones fall into the 'free' and 'not free' category, and their 'not free' products aren't that competitive, " says Greengart.
Analysts like Greengart are skeptical.
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