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January 26, 2006
Smartphones
Smartphone. I used to know what this word meant. Lately I don't think that it has much meaning anymore. We had a customer last week ask if we had data in our database that signified if a phone was a smartphone or not. We aren't currently doing this and the reason is that there is no objective criteria for what makes a phone a "smartphone" . Wikipedia says that basically if a user can load software onto the phone, then it's a smartphone. By that criteria, 3/4 of all the phones in the U.S. market are smartphones.
There are obvious extremes; the Treo 650 is a smartphone for sure, and the Startac is surely not a smartphone. But when you look at the rest of the phones out there, the majority of new phones available that cost more than $20 are Java MIDP or BREW enabled. Also many phones have calendars, notes, and other PDA/PIM functionality. Probably the demand for camera phones has required devices with enough processor power that we are just getting "smartphone" features now with what would otherwise be "feature phones".
I think that with the new phones available to take advantage of EDGE, EV-DO, HSPDA, etc. along with the abundance of cameras, bluetooth, usb connection, better/larger displays, video playback, MP3 playback, etc. etc., that the term "smartphone" has really lost most of it's distinction.
I'm interested in what you all think.
Posted by David Adams at January 26, 2006 11:08 PM
Comments
When I hear that term, I usually think of a Windows Mobile, Palm or high end Symbian phone. But I think you're right, the line is getting pretty fuzzy.
My crappy little Moto C650 has a bunch of PIM functions, but they are all pretty useless due to how difficult it is to key in the data.
Posted by: James Hillyerd at January 27, 2006 09:59 AM
Smartphones should be those devices that are half-way between a phone and a PDA.
You should have an organizer and addressbook (most mobile devices have this).
Should have a big screen.
You should be able to install applications that are integrated with the OS, not like J2ME applications that live in a sandbox.
MIGHT have an input device such as a stylus (think of the P800 and P900).
Anyway I agree that more and more phones that were not supposed to be so smart are getting smarter... With MIDP 2 you get access to the addressbook from j2me for example.. You can send SMS, you can access the camera and the microphone.
I wonder what the customer really wants to know about the device to ask if it's a smartphone. I mean, if he wants to know what a smartphone is, he should probably be able to tell YOU what a smartphone is. Once you clear that up you can build a query for your repository such as "SELECT * FROM devices WHERE screen_width> 150 AND screen_height > 150 AND styuls=true;
You know what I mean? If he can't explain, he probably doesn't need that information! :D
Posted by: Andrea Trasatti at January 27, 2006 10:54 AM
I agree. I know a smartphone when I see one, but there is not "objective"criteria. Also as phones get smarter, what we consider a smartphone changes. The 3650 was a smartphone for a long. Relatively speaking I'm not sure I'd consider it a smartphone.
I agree about being able to install OS applications. That seems to be a criteria where we can draw the line with pretty good results. The problem is, with the functionality that has been added to newer versions of Java MIDP and BREW, that you mentioned, I don't think that distinction makes much sense to the end subscriber.
Posted by: David Adams at January 27, 2006 03:34 PM