A colleague posed an interesting question the other day: do you want a Windows Phone 7 (WP7) handset? Aside from making a personal judgement on the new Microsoft OS, it does raise the question as to which of the nine devices one would choose, when to all intents and purposes they look the same, with comparable feature sets which also make it hard to differentiate. With HTC, LG and Samsung all having similar levels of brand cachet, it would be tough to choose one over another.

This is not just a WP7 issue. At a recent event, designed to highlight the user interface differences presented by the new Microsoft platform, an exec from the company showed a slide which featured an Apple iPhone alongside a Nokia 5800, alongside a RIM BlackBerry Storm, alongside a Palm Pre. The similarity between the devices was striking, not only in terms of the UI, but also the design of the handsets themselves.

The issue is that in the premium device market, differentiation seems to be something of a dirty word: in order to challenge the iPhone, vendors have produced a raft of devices using different operating systems which look almost exactly like the Apple product, with the main difference being the price. Samsung has even managed to produce devices using Windows Phone, Android and its own bada platform, which look virtually identical. There is an exception in the shape of RIM’s BlackBerry, and devices including Nokia’s C6 and Palm’s Pre add a slider twist to the touch-screen norm, but essentially the effect is the same.

The arrival on common ground can also be seen in the feature sets. While there are some outliers, most smartphones have a camera of around 5MP, include GPS and WiFi, and support an app store in some shape or form. In most cases, popular apps (perhaps Angry Birds, or Facebook, or Twitter) are available across-the-board, and in the future, the increased use of widgets and web-based app technologies will mean that essentially all apps and services are available regardless of device operating system.

With Strategy Analytics recently noting that smartphones make up nearly one quarter of total device shipments, software has become a much more important part of the device package, meaning vendors and operators are presented with a challenge. While it is easy to compare devices based on facts such as processor speeds, camera specs, and other hardware features, differentiating based on software capabilities is a far more complex proposition, and certainly less easy to convey in a consumer advertising campaign. This again makes the main differentiating feature the price, which will certainly be an unwelcome development for vendors looking to preserve already pressured margins.

This form factor and feature homogeneity has not always been evident. Looking into the featurephone sector, customers are still presented with a selection that includes candybars, clamshells and sliders, all with numeric keypads; QWERTY devices aping the BlackBerry; entry-level touchscreen phones; and other, ‘quirky’ formats. It is also not difficult to remember handsets which had a form factor that made them stand out from the crowd: Motorola’s RAZR range, Nokia’s 7110, 3650 and 7600, and Motorola’s V70 all dared to be different, even if this led to different degrees of success in the market. And while it is difficult to assess, bold designs certainly attract the attention of the market, which could easily create a positive glow across the rest of the range – similar to the ‘concept car’ so beloved of vehicle makers.

Perhaps the big question is whether premium customers are being well served by this wholesale embrace of the touchscreen by vendors, when previously they would have had a choice of different designs from different companies. Is the touchscreen smartphone the perfect user interface, or is the lack of product form differentiation actually a lack of innovation? And for those who like to be ahead of the curve, there is the issue that with most high-end smartphones having the same design as mid-tier feature phones, it is difficult to mark yourself out as a leader when on the daily commute.

Perhaps there may be an opportunity for a brave manufacturer to break the mould, and create a device with a design that makes it stand out from the portfolio of Apple clones…