With the upcoming Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Thunderbolt, Apple will have to rely on their branding more than ever if they want to keep their market lead in the smart phone category. That being said, Apple’s loyal customers still set records when they beat Verizon’s single day product launch sales when the iPhone 4 went available online. The record was actually beaten in two hours between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.

However, Verizon fans will have more to look forward to in the upcoming months as the Bionic and Thunderbolt head towards the America’s largest 3G network. The 4G capable phones have screen sizes that are 0.8’’ larger than the iPhone 4 and, with additional storage, they can surpass the 32 Gigs of memory available with the iPhone. Not to mention a higher still resolution camera, better battery life, and the new Android 2.2 operating system that is flash compatible. A great spec sheet can be found here.

The iPhone 4 does have some things going in its favor however. On the Apple store, you can easily peruse through 300,000 available apps, as compared to 100,000 for Android phones. There is always the loyal apple network that shattered the sales record for Verizon. And then there’s also the innovative iPhone ad campaign that has a clear and distinctive beat, and sleek and smooth styling that just leaves you feeling as if you have witnessed innovation.

At the end of the day, because Apple was the revolutionary in the smart phone market, they will be perceived as a step above the competition. All smart phones that come after the iPhone 4 will have the distinctive aroma of copycats, most recently noted by the advent of the front camera on the Bionic and Thunderbolt. Although the iPhone’s competitors can claim superior hardware, their creators cannot claim superior innovation, and that is what I believe Apple will base its ad campaign around for the upcoming iPhone 4 upgrade, or even iPhone 5.