By Len Shneyder

Since the launch of the iPhone we have known that not all smartphones are alike: the chasm between cutting edge and old vanguard has become incredibly wide.

Research In Motion?s BlackBerry has been carrying the torch for a long time but, with its WinCE operating system, seems almost antiquated when compared to the rapidly growing market share of the Apple iPhone that leverages the Webkit Open Source browser engine.

The litmus test for success is ultimately the user experience and there is no one that offers a user experience as smooth and rich as the iPhone.

According to a recent estimate, Research In Motion enjoys the highest market share, with 52 percent, while the iPhone is at around 23 percent.

However, the real question is about innovation ? and there are other contenders on the horizon.

Mobile 3.0
If we look at it from the standpoint of user experience then we find a common thread running through the new generation of handsets that can easily be called Mobile 3.0 ? they are all using some form of the Webkit engine.

The new Palm Pre, for example, is a major improvement over previous Palm-based smartphones. The new Pre uses the Webkit open source browser engine that Mac?s Safari and iPhone have used effectively.

Email rendering on the Palm Pre rivals that of the iPhone, giving users a very rich experience. As a matter of fact, the rendering of emails on Palm WebOS devices such as the Pre and Pixi is almost identical to how emails render on an iPhone.

Something completely unique to the Palm WebOS platform is the way that subject lines are rendered ? they are highlighted.

Smart marketers will find new reasons to concentrate on a catchy and direct message for their subject lines in order to take advantage of this spotlight that is sure to catch a user?s eye.
 
Adroit for ?droid
Another reason for marketers to celebrate is Google?s Android platform, which also has taken full advantage of the Webkit engine and provides a similar experience to that of the Palm WebOS and the iPhone.

The major difference we have seen, however, is that Android does not shrink email to fit the available screen width but rather forces a left-to-right scroll bar.

Like the shift in the preview pane to the left side of the email client in Outlook 2007, marketers should consider keeping their branding as high as possible and over to the left to take advantage of the Android?s default position and resolution.

Since messages are not shrunken down to the size of the screen, a user on the very first screen may not see branding and logos. Branding and calls to action should be as close to the left margin as possible to make sure that the message is communicated clearly and quickly.

All the old prescriptions for mobile email optimization hold true: do not use multi-column layouts, consider doing without pre-headers as they push down your branding and calls to action, especially true for the Android platform that does not fit the width of the email to the available screen.

The smartphone market is not a fluke ? it is the future.

When you consider that smartphone sales have grown 72 percent year over year, the numbers speak for themselves.

As important as it is to know the numbers in order to fully appreciate the demand and importance of this global channel, understanding handset capabilities will help you achieve every richer communications and ROI.

Len Shneyder is director of partner relations and industry communications at Pivotal Veracity, a deliverability services and consultancy provider in Phoenix. Reach him at .