Excellent point made by Julien Cayzac made in three tweets:

1 SH-01B (Sharp’s Aquos Shot: 12.1M cam, 3.4” WVGA display, BluRay compatible) still top selling phone in JP Jan 4→10. iPhone 3GS is 2nd & 3rd

2 It’s been quite a while since iPhone hasn’t made it back to 1st position in rankings, despite being given away w/ a 2-yr plan…

3 That does qualify Sharp’s phone as an iPhone killer, right?

In deciding which device deserves the title of “iPhone killer”, what is the metric to be used? Device features alone don’t seem to be it. Number of apps in the app store is a dubious measure. Number of sales is too simple as it does not capture the “quality” of the iPhone and similar devices. Feature phones (Nokia) would wins hands down. Sales popularity? The SH-01B has ranked number one in sales in Japan for 5 out of the past 6 weeks as Julien points out. Of course the iPhone has consistently ranked within the top 10 since its release two years ago, often taking two or three slots for each size (8GB, 16GB and 32GB).

Finding the right metric, or combination thereof, is difficult when we don’t even have a proper definition of “smartphone” that captures the category that so many people think the iPhone is dominating. One requirement I think should be included is that if the iPhone is to be killed, it must be done on the world stage. Unfortunately, that would exclude any phone produced in Japan, the Galapagos Islands of the mobile world.