One of my favorite niche blogs is AAS, or All About Symbian. Saturday (my birthday!) they posted this commentary on what exactly is the difference between a featurephone and a smartphone, anyway.
The commentary is more enlightening than the original post, so read all of those as well. I tend to agree with the bulk of the statements; its about customization, customization and also customization.
Most of the people I know have classic smartphones — some Blackerries, and lots of Window Mobile devices, as we're in the U.S. Most of these are of the new, cheap variety — like the Centro or Moto Q. And they are used like the featurephones they replaced. They make calls, add up to 15 people to the address book, take photos, and download a game or two from the operator store. They are terribly excited to show off that this phone can browse the web(!)
When I show off how much more they can do with their phone by whipping out my phone, and showing off some of the 27 (yes, I counted) apps I have downloaded and use all the time, I mostly get blank stares, but sometimes hand waving that its all too complicated.
So, I have to add another facet to what defines a smartphone, the user. Designing around user-intent is not impossible, but I have yet to figure out how to to get a device data repository to encode that.
And I could seriously use a header for "savvy user." Among the biggest design worries I have is getting people to understand that their device — whatever it is called — is almost certainly capable of doing other than those core items, so that the app I am designing gets downloaded, and used.
Thanks for the great take on the phones, but what is your current choice? I’m happy with my Treo600 but am afraid it is beyond it’s life expectancy. The problem is that Palm hasn’t come out with a good new device and I don’t want to fall into the WinMo camp.
Any fresh insights?
Fresh? Not so much. I am not a big hardware reviewer or anything, but personally I am loving Nokias running Series-60. I like my phone-shaped N75, but replacing a Treo I’d look at the N95s; aside from the weird U.S. market, its undoubetdly the phone to beat. Google about and you’ll find plenty of comparisons between it, other Nokias, various other competitors (mostly Win, but a few other Symbians) and of course… iPhone.