The emergence of China as an economic superpower

So the iPhone received real competition in America as of Wednesday, as the LG-Verizon newlyweds unveiled the new LG Voyager, challenging the once-solid relationship of the Apple-AT&T mature couple.

Interesting, Verizon Communications Inc.'s (NYSE:VZ) choice of suitors was not at all arbitrary. LG Electronics Inc. (SEO:066570), one of the fastest growing manufacturers of trendy mobile phones, became notorious (strangely, in a good sense) in Asia and Europe for its ability to capitalize on the "iPhone opportunity" by releasing an iPhone look-a-like before the iPhone was even on sale in the States. The result was the LG Prada Phone (LG KE850), named after the firms that conjured up this sweet phone.

But with the introduction of another iPhone look-a-like by LG, how do these phones compare and where do we go from here?

The Prada Phone, if one vaugely remembers, was iPhone's twin of sorts. Yet even back then, everyone compared the Prada Phone to the iPhone as some sort of a benchmark.

The Prada Phone was smaller and more fashionable, but the iPhone boasted quad-band and a faster EDGE network (though even now people still don't understand why Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn't choose 3G over EDGE, the fastest of wireless networks currently offered by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T)). While the iPhone had on-board storage, the Prada Phone touted its MicroSD.

So in the end, nobody won. But not because one phone was better or worse than another, but simply because the Prada Phone was only on sale in Asia and Europe (it's everywhere in Hong Kong) and one could not (legally) unlock an iPhone for use in those regions (thinking of using an iPhone in China? Wait until 2008!)

That is, nobody won until Wednesday. The new phone, LG Voyager will definitely challenge iPhone's market share. If anything, this has to be a combination of three factors: 1. LG Voyager is developed for the US market, not some distant Asian market; 2. LG teamed up with a telecom operator this time around, instead of a fashion trend maker (economies of scale will probably win out); 3. LG took a long enough time to analyze the iPhone (particularly its disadvantages) by now so that they can create a better product, an iPhone beater.

The LG Voyager's specs are still unclear, but what's for sure is that it has a large enough touch screen (don't know if multi-touch or not) combined with an actual QWERTY slide-up keyboard. Once again, this phone uses MicroSD over internal memory, but this time, LG can boast a phone running on Verizon's CDMA wireless network, one of the largest mobile phone networks in the US.

So who's going to win out and become the leader in touch screen phones? LG or Apple?