Smartphones - smart?

[Daniel Pocock]

On 04/07/14 14:31, Hugo Roy wrote:
> Hello,
>
> TL;DR: we shouldn’t use the term smartphones but instead simply
> refer to mobiles (or mobile devices).
>
> You may have seen it on FSFE’s last newsletter (coming to
> non-fellows soon) or on some other materials. Sometimes we use the
> term “smartphone” to indicate mobile computers that we carry
> around us and that we can use to phone, text, email, get spied
> on, play, etc.
>
> I don’t know how you feel about the term, but we can agree that
> it’s just a marketing invention. What’s wrong with you if you

Not quite - I think it serves to differentiate phones that can run apps
from those that only act as firmware

In other words, a smartphone is a basic phone + a PDA/pocket computer

> haven’t got a smartphone: maybe you’re just dumb, right?
>
> I feel we should restrain from using this marketing term.
> Especially, I think it’s misleading to say that the phone is smart
> or for smart people. Moreover, the way these phones operating
> systems are designed by contrast to classic operating systems,
> they are actually less “smart”: the interesting computation does
> not happen on the device itself, but on the
> Google/Apple/Amazon/etc. server.

This, too, is not universally true. Many good apps do run entirely
within the phone and they deserve more recognition.

> I also think that it’s not accurate to call these phones any more,
> since they’re a lot more. So I suggest we just use the term
> "mobiles" or "mobile devices".

Personally, I prefer to hear somebody say smartphone when they would
otherwise say something worse, like iPhone

I also look forward to the day when people say tablet instead of iPad.
Amongst other things, a growing number of people never take tablet
devices out of their bag at an airport if the sign only tells people to
remove iPads and laptops from their bags.

Regards,

Daniel