The past few weeks have seen Apple's iPhone hogging the limelight in cellphone territory. So much so that little or no attention has been paid to a number of enterprise phones that have hit the market, none of which are low profile. To recount: Nokia's E90 Navigator, Blackberry Curve and HP's new iPAQs. HTC, a relative newcomer, has unveiled products such as the Touch that seem worthy of attention. With so many releases nonetheless, the iPhone is still the one entity that remains etched in people's minds. I believe one reason for this is the veritable lack of innovation in the smartphone space.

New yes, innovation no
Nothing really breathtaking has happened in the enterprise phone segment for a while now. We do have more smartphones in the market than ever before, and prices have plummeted significantly (you can now get a smartphone for around Rs 10,000, something that was unimaginable a few years ago). However, the user experience has remained essentially unchanged. You still have the same interface – alphanumeric or QWERTY keyboard and/or a stylus. Even the software is essentially similar, barring the odd new icon here and there.

Take the recently launched E90 for instance – the new avatar of the venerable Communicator. It does have more features than ever stacked into it and looks so much sleeker but even though the company is using a new operating system, the fact is that its functionality is very similar to that of the E Series, barring the good ol' big keyboard and large screen. Blackberry's Curve is sleek to look at and very light indeed but again just makes a few changes to the general Blackberry experience.

The last time something really radical happened in the enterprise space was when Nokia came out with its 'open it and get a full keyboard and larger screen' concept in the original Communicator or when one saw a full QWERTY keypad being squeezed into a conventional phone. Since then, there has been nothing new except more connectivity options, better processors and more storage space. Touch screens have been around for a while too – Apple used one in the Newton age and HP has attempted to highlight voice controls in its new iPAQ but that is nothing new, again.