Smartphones - smart?

[Hugo Roy]

↪ 2014-07-04 Fri 15:53, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au>:
> On 04/07/14 15:42, Hugo Roy wrote:
> > ↪ 2014-07-04 Fri 14:40, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au>:
> >>> 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
> > I think you’re missing the point of the discussion. I know what a
> > smartphone refers to the object you describes, but that’s not what
> > the term smartphone means in itself. Smartphone is a combination
> > of “smart” and “phone” and there’s no denying that this
> > combination is pure marketing. Another illustration of this is how
> > new objects are being sold with “smart” in front of it: Smart Tv,
> > Smar fridge, smart fork and whatnot.
> 
> Ok, so "smart" is convenient marketing but if we want to refer to such a
> phone, as distinct from a legacy mobile, just using the word "mobile"
> may not be sufficient
> 
> Is there any other terms that could be used?

Depending on the context, you might not need to differentiate
2010s phones from 2000s phones (that’s true most of the time). I
don’t use a special word to make a distinction between a laptop
from 2014 and a laptop from 1992.

However, in the past we would talk about “mobile phones” or
“phones” -- which does not make much sense any more because these
objects have improved to a point that their primary use might not
be to make phone calls any more. Which is why sticking to
“*phones” is not accurate. 

Mobile devices is, I think, clear enough. Or mobile computing
devices.

If however you need to specifically make a differentiation between
phones from 2000s and phones from 2010s, well, let’s get creative
-- but I don’t think we need to call them “smartphones.”


-- 
Hugo Roy, Free Software Foundation Europe, <www.fsfe.org> 
Deputy Coordinator, FSFE Legal Team, <www.fsfe.org/legal> 
Coordinator, FSFE French Team, <www.fsfe.org/fr> 
 
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