The iPhone already has a fierce rival that might question its success on the mobile phone market if it proves to be superior. The LG Prada phone has been announced just a few weeks after the iPhone and resembles Apple's handset in many aspects.

The world of luxury mobile phones has been rocked by the recent release of two impressive models: the LG Prada and the iPhone. Everyone's first impression on the two releases was that the phones' designs greatly resemble, which brought up the question whether LG has stolen the design from Apple. Still, Woo-Young Kwak, R&D director at LG, emphasized the fact that the Prada phone concept has actually been released in September 2006 and that the phone concept had been made public some time before that.

A compared analysis on the two phone models shows a considerable amount of differences. First of all, the iPhone is just a bit slimmer than Prada, although larger when it comes to other measures. Furthermore, the iPhone features a 3.5 inch Touch Screen display capable of a resolution of up to 480 x 320 pixels. On the other hand, LG Prada has an only 3 inch large display without Touch Screen and capable of a smaller resolution of 400 x 240 pixels. Another difference is that iPhone uses an OS X Quartz and Core Animation interface, whereas LG Prada has an Adobe Flash one.

There are also some differences unrelated to the performances that the two phone models are capable of, but which have to do with their positioning on the market. LG Prada has already been available for purchase since the first quarter of this year for the price of USD600. The iPhone, on the other hand, will be released towards the end of this year and the beginning of 2008. This decision might turn out as a disadvantage for Apple, as Prada will already have won a considerable part of the market share for these luxury mobile phones.