One topic that gets quite a bit of debate in the mobile industry is what defines a ‘smartphone’. What makes one phone smart and the other ‘dumb’, and what happens when a ‘dumbphone’ is able to do things that a smartphone can? Dennis over at WAPReview.com (killer site, by the way, if you’re a mobile internet junky like me) speculates about the future of these two terms, and what might happen to the smartphone category in the coming years.
Personally, I’ve had similar conversations and thoughts myself, with other bloggers and just in my own thinking. Most of what I use my N95 for could just as easily be done on S40 handsets, or better yet, on the newer SonyEricsson featurephones, which support quasi-multitasking. However, having tried it before, I know for a fact that while it’s *possible*, it’s not nearly the same experience that I’m used to on my N95.
I’d like to think that true multitasking is what sets a smartphone apart from a ‘dumbphone’. However, that would limit out the Blackberry and iPhone, as well as Palm’s joke of an OS, which is clearly not right. Dennis has his own thoughts on what classifies a ‘smartphone’, but also maintains that the line between smart and dumb phones is quickly getting more and more blurry. However, Dennis also maintains that smartphones are not ‘dying out’, but instead featurephones are rising up, so to speak.
Also, as this happens, what becomes of the major smartphone OS’s? How do Windows Mobile, Symbian (S60 and UIQ), Blackberry, Palm (if they’re still around), and even, if you consider it one, the iPhone differentiate from featurephones? What do you think? I realize that this entire post is a big rhetorical question, where everyone has answers but there is no correct or incorrect, but it’s interesting to think about, nonetheless.
Edit: Steve over at AllAboutSymbian.com beat me to the punch with a similar article. Great minds think alike, eh Steve?
