At the last Keynote I was excited, wondering what Apple was going to introduce. It was so boring then I cannot even remember what was launched or discussed? A price drop perhaps? A new iPod shuffle? In any case this time round I wasn’t to be fooled and didn’t hang on my laptop waiting for the ‘next big thing’ but instead cooked a Thai curry and casually glanced at the Macrumors feed. *sigh* – another Apple disappointment? Or perhaps not.

We’re going to be developing iPhone Apps soon because I love Apple products and the App store is one of the best things about the iPhone plus we’ve got some great ideas that seem perfect for the platform. Finally I feel the iPhone offers enough to seriously rival features of other smartphones but not because Apple are first or offering say the best camera with the highest number of megapixels but because Apple seem better at implementation than anyone else.

However I have to say this incremental update to the iPhone, especially when faced with Nokia’s new N97 and Palm’s re-entry into the market with the ‘Pre’ could have been more impressive. Touting features such as tethering (I think I was doing this 5 years ago with my Nokia 6110??), video (Hello Apple – this is really old news in mobile), MMS and so on are just bizarre. It’s almost as though Apple feel they have invented the mobile phone and that all other manufacturers’ contributions mean nothing.

Both Nokia and Palm have made a concerted effort with their new devices to tap into the here and now, the realworld. Palm’s excellent use of multitasking is enough alone to guarantee a huge number of fans and Nokia are on a bit of a roll with their touchscreen phones since the very popular and cheap 5800 was launched. The N97 takes things onto a new level – great 5mpx camera with Carl Zeiss optics, good low light performance and lens cap, video, great widget based home screen and full qwerty backlit keyboard…the list goes on.

For many the iPhone is still playing catch up with features on other devices but it is Apple’s incredible PR machine and brilliant UI that ensure it’s edging closer to world smartphone dominance.