So, how should a competitor respond to the iPhone, Apple's imminent jesusphone? Let's be honest: no spin can counter the new gadget's momentum; the anticipation of the media and potential customers, ahead of the June 29th launch, is just too intense. But Steve Jobs, Apple's product visionary, has one weak spot. The The contention of Microsoft's chief exec, Steve Ballmer, that the iPhone has "no chance" of significant market share? That might impress the analysts, but it won't kill the enthusiasm of early adopters, who yearn for the device precisely because it's outside the mass-market mainstream. For a more promising riff, take this quote from Sky Dayton, Scientologist founder of Helio, a youth-oriented smartphone threatened by Apple's debut. In an otherwise mundane article in the New York Times, Dayton notes there's one important group of consumers the zen-simple iPhone may miss. "There is a generation of users who are always online and who don't communicate the way their parents did," he says. "They're e-mailing; they're texting; they're I.M.-ing." Translation: Steve Jobs, once the hip trendsetter of the tech industry, is now 52, and doesn't understand the kids of today. That meme is mean and, if the iPhone's on-screen keyboard proves frustrating to avid texters, could prove quite effective.

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