(keitai-l) Re: smartphones

From: Michael Sydenham <michael_at_bxb.com.au>
Date: 12/10/05
Message-Id: <b4c8c990be870b666beb2a5a94035b03@bxb.com.au>
Quoting Gerhard Fasol <fasol@eurotechnology.com>:

 > Now I will take a position:
 >
 > Following this "smart phone" discussion for several years in
 > newspaper etc, I postulate:
 >
 > The term "smart phone" is a pretty useless marketing term.

It's pretty useless these days - every phone these days could be 
considered a "smartphone". I believe the term was in vogue several 
years ago (outside Japan) to help consumers understand the difference 
between a 'normal' voice-only mobile phone, and one that also had some 
'smart' lifestyle-enhancement or special function, e.g. a decent, 
editable address book or diary, messaging, wired/wireless connectivity 
option (to PC etc), perhaps a novel interface (keyboard or touch UI), 
or downloadable apps. I don't think OSes etc factor in - not many 
end-users care about OSes - just functions.

 > Technical experts have difficult to find a meaningful
 > definition of this term.

Since it's not really a term used these days, it's a pretty meaningless 
debate I think. I don't think I've ever heard it used in Japan in 
particular.

Just my opinion.

Regards

Michael.
Received on Sat Dec 10 23:32:10 2005