Direct competition A quick look at the technologies Apple is pushing in the iPhone shows that many others devices, either on shop shelves or about to be launched, share these features. Take the touchscreen, for instance. Many smartphones - which more resemble a PDA than a plain handset - can be used with a stylus or a deft finger. Nokia's 6708 and SonyEricsson's M600 and P990 are examples of this. All are made for corporate road warriors and, it has to be said, they look like it. SonyEricsson also makes the W950 music-playing phone that has a touchscreen plus buttons, stylus and handwriting recognition. It also looks a lot funkier than the business versions. The iPhone is not the only mobile with a touchscreen Gilles Oriol, product marketing manager for Western Europe at SonyEricsson, declined the opportunity to talk directly about Apple's iPhone. "We do not comment on rival products," he said. But, he told the BBC News website, that he "doubted" that SonyEricsson would ever make a phone that only had a touchscreen. "It must remain a good telephone first," he said, "consumers are more willing to dial a number with the keyboard than they are to do it with a touchscreen." "Also," he added, "the point about a touchscreen is that it affects battery time. You need a powerful battery because to use the touchscreen means it remains on all the time." Apple's iPhone is due to make its appearance in the US in June, but before the big day Asian rivals will have launched handsets that will be in much more direct competition. In February, Samsung showed off the F700 that resembles the iPhone in many ways. The screen of the F700 is smaller at 2.78in (7.06cm) compared with 3.5in (8.9cm) for the iPhone - but in almost every other respect they are very similar. The two have comparable amounts of memory and features, but the F700 has the advantage of including a slide-out keyboard and a five megapixel camera. By comparison, the iPhone Steve Jobs showed off in January only has a two megapixel camera.