If you haven't heard about iPhone yet, then probably you are living in the Himalayas in a hidden cave. No doubt Apple's new iPhone is the in thing now. It is slim, sleek, sexy and bundled with plenty of cool features. It is quite expensive for the average phone users which make up the 90 % of the total phone users. Hence if you are wondering as to what features iPhone has compared to your current phone then this article will give you an idea of what iPhone offers and their alternatives available in the market.

1. iPhone's Visual Voicemail: Lets you see a listing of voice-mail messages and choose which ones to listen to.
   
   
   CallWave: Callwave is a free service that sends copies of your messages to your e-mail. You can see the callers and the message lengths in the subject line so you can select which to listen to, and you reply by text or a call back. It even notifies you of new messages via SMS.
   
   Web-based GotVoice: GotVoice grabs your new voice-mail messages, records them as MP3 files, and sends them to your chosen e-mail address. The messages are preserved on your phone's voice-mail service as well as in your GotVoice inbox. GotVoice works with multiple phones (say, your mobile, home, and work numbers), letting you see all of your voice mail wherever you access your e-mail. While the standard service is free, you need to pay $10 for a premium account which eliminates the advertisments.
2. iPhone Music: Syncs music with your PC and the iTunes Store automatically.
   
   
   Palm Treos: Having already released a bevy of music-playing cell phones, other phone vendors are enjoying a head start on Apple, and can offer music features that the iPhone can only hope to have. For example, NormSoft's PocketTunes, a $38 application for all Palm Treo phones, not only handles music downloads from Yahoo Music Engine, Napster To Go, and Rhapsody To Go (among other subscription services) but also enables Internet radio reception and can be pimped up with dozens of downloadable skins.
   
   Windows Mobile: If you have a Windows Mobile-based smart phone from any mobile carrier, Mercora's M music player can give you remote access to songs stored on your PC and let you tune in to Internet radio broadcasts; all you do is download a small app to your phone and PC. The service costs $5 per month or $50 per year.
   
   For live streaming of real-time television and radio, get MobiTV for any Java-enabled phone. If you're in an area with good reception, you can view TV programs that run smoothly, without static or hiccups. Currently a $10-per-month subscription will get you dozens of broadcast stations and other content providers; lineups vary by cell phone carrier.
   
   Each of the major cellular carriers also offers its own version of iTunes at competitive prices. Sprint's Music Store has reduced its track download price to 99 cents; Verizon's Vcast has also cut music prices. Even AT&T, the carrier that handles the iPhone, isn't betting everything on that exclusivity: The company is offering free Napster To Go subscriptions (ordinarily $180 a year) for its Sync and BlackJack phones.
3. iPhone's Memory:: Holds 4GB to 8GB flash memory storage.
   
   
   While the iPhone has an unprecedented amount of internal memory, it can't expand beyond that capacity. Most other phones can expand, via external memory card slots for microSD and miniSD media. Capacity on such cards currently tops out at 4GB, but that's expected to double shortly. 2GB microSD cards go for less than $25 at retailers such as Amazon.com. 
4. iPhone Photo Management: To adjust images for e-mail or to orient them in portrait or landscape mode for best viewing.
   
   
   Cameras of assorted megapixels are standard equipment on phones these days, but whether you get software to properly handle those photos varies. If you want to have iPhone-like capabilities, your best bet is to add third-party software. 
   
   MobilePanda's freeware MobilePhoto: It is a small PC program that lets you manipulate photos you want to transfer to your phone for viewing or to use as wallpaper. Just choose your phone model from a list, and it properly resizes shots to suit your handset's screen size. The app then uploads the modified shot to the phone via the Internet (adjusted photos are not stored locally, so you can't do a USB transfer, for example). MobilePhoto includes a surprising amount of photo-enhancement tools for a free program. Transferring single shots to your phone, however, costs 99 cents; you can buy a bulk package that brings the cost down to 39 cents per shot.
5. iPhone Google Maps:: You can view and adjust Google Maps in any direction with a touch of your finger.
   
   
   Google Maps offers a mobile version for any Internet-enabled cell phone. And while iPhones can view only the static maps, many other phones from the major carriers offer GPS mapping with traffic updates. Telenav, the leading GPS app, is available for most Java-enabled phones. It shows color street maps and gives turn-by-turn driving directions by voice and on screen, alerts you with traffic reports, and intelligently reroutes you accordingly. Exact pricing varies by cell provider but is generally $10 a month for unlimited use.