An accepted industry definition of a smartphone is “a mobile phone which can run native (non-Java) apps”. This definition seems completely out-of-sync with the reality of
5 billion mobile devices in use today around the world. What consumers consider “smart” is the ability to use their phone for more than simple voice calls; any non-voice service which runs on a mobile phone (such as SMS, email, notepad, web browser) with an adequate keyboard interface is considered “smart” by most consumers. And when it comes to apps, the fact that a certain app is Java or native is completely meaningless to consumers; just ask the
2.6 billion owners of Java-enabled handsets, and they’ll tell you their phone is super smart since it can run thousands of 3
rd party apps to extend its functionality.
So what I’m suggesting is that the term “smartphone” should be redefined to match the reality of how consumers are using their phones. Any mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard (with physical keys or a virtual keyboard) which can run 3
rd party apps to extend its functionality (whether Java apps or native apps) should definitely be defined as a smartphone. This means that the hundreds of millions of Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry devices out there with a simple numeric keypad should definitely NOT be considered smartphones, since their keyboard is not optimized for proper text entry and applications (e.g. Nokia
C5,
X5,
E50,
E51,
E52,
E55,
E60,
E65,
E66,
3250,
5500,
5700,
6110,
6120,
6121,
6210,
6290,
6680,
6681,
6682,
6700,
6710,
6720,
5320,
5630,
N70,
N71,
N72,
N73,
N75,
N76,
N77,
N78,
N80,
N81,
N82,
N91,
N92,
N93,
N95,
N96,
N85,
N86,
N79, Blackberry
9100,
9105,
8220,
8110,
8120,
8100,
7130,
7100, HTC
S310, Samsung
D700,
D710,
D720,
D730,
L870,
i200,
i250,
i300,
i310,
i400,
i450,
i520,
i550,
i560,
g810,
i7110,
i8510,
Z600, Sony Ericsson
M600,
G700,
G900,
W950,
W960, Motorola
RIZR Z8,
Z10).
On the other hand, the hundreds of millions of so-called “simple feature phones” which have a built-in keyboard and can run Java apps can fairly be categorized as smartphones, since their users can comfortably write texts and use apps to do all kinds of “smart” things (e.g. Samsung
B3210,
B3310,
B3410,
B5310,
M750,
A767,
A797,
T469,
T559,
A177,
A687,
A877,
A257,
T401,
T459,
U450,
U460, LG
KS360,
GW520,
F9100,
VX9100,
VX9600,
VX9800,
VX9900,
VX10000,
AX260,
UX260,
LX260,
LX265,
UX265,
LX600, Alcatel
OT-252,
OT-255,
OT-606,
OT-800,
OT-802,
OT-806,
OT-808,
OT-880).
This new definition for smartphones also shows the way of future mobile devices, where people won’t care at all about the operating system or apps, but will only focus on the functionality of the device: text, email, web, games, etc… whether all of this functionality is run within apps or websites, as long as they have a usable interface.
Full blog:
http://bit.ly/dkGcMa
