RIM and Apple (and others) aren't explicitly the reason (imho) why they don't have "everything beneath them" e.g. lower class/non-business users. It's the price

RIM and Apple (and others) aren't explicitly the reason (imho) why they don't have "everything beneath them" e.g. lower class/non-business users. It's the price of the plan and not the devices that are a bigger detraction. There are plenty of blackberries that are free with contracts in the US and used/first generation iPhones are available for very cheap outside of contract. It's the plans that cost the most overall, and that's something RIM and Apple don't necessarily have pricing control over. That means that it's pretty likely that if someone doesn't already have a smartphone, either they don't feel that they need it, they feel that they cannot afford it, or a combination of both. Even personally I suppose you could class me as middle class, and I've had an iPhone since the very first day. I still resent what I'm paying and wonder if it's worth it. Not the phone itself, but the price of the plan which is currently in the neighborhood of $40 just for the 3g data and 500 text messages. $40 could buy a regular voice plan with many minutes for someone who has no need for data. If that is the case, Palm pretty much are screwed because if people could afford something like a Centro (with a plan) they are no doubt going to compare it to a RIM or Apple device at some point, even if the Centro is free. Palm has nothing to offer that's particularly enticing over the rest of the smartphone market. Now onto the three killer apps: App1 is something lots of phones can do in concept already - not necessarily what you mention, but say, if I wanted to text someone I just called on my iPhone it's something I could select from the phone menu to create a new text message. And vice versa - on the top of the text message I just received from a person is a button I can press to call them. Plus they share the address book. App2 is something the iPhone is surprisingly kicking ass at, except for the connectivity. A fun game doesn't need to be intricate. My favorite game for my iPhone is de blob, and its just twisting my iphone around and around getting a blob to bump into buildings to color them. :D Also judging from the reaction from the location services on the iPhone, some people are going to seriously resent a GPS enabled game/social network. Take for example Twinkle, which is (right now) a Twitter client for the iPhone. If you check out the nearby feature, it's pretty scary. I've come across more than a few creeps that way, and it's one reason why I'm not using Twinkle even though I want to. App3 just fragments the already fairly fragmented social networks available now. The best bet would be to just get all the big ones on board so people can pick and choose. It wouldn't be the best the phone has to offer, but personally I'd rather access twitter and facebook separately than deal with a network for people who have iPhones (for example) and only them.