For your definition fine.
But don't try pretend there is only one definition or that it is clear cut in any which way or form.
Read up yourself - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
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Samsung losing to Apple
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For your definition fine.
But don't try pretend there is only one definition or that it is clear cut in any which way or form.
Read up yourself - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphone
cerebus
Honorary Master
They were a long way from anything that resembled the step forwards that the iPhone took. It's like looking at a bunch of apes and say they were all on the path of man anyway, but suggesting that limited and flawed mankind redefined apes is silly.
Dolby
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A smartphone (or smart phone) is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones
It didn't have more advanced connection than a standard phone. If anything, I felt like I had been teleported back to 2005 without 3G being listed. It had EDGE! In 2007, the defining smartphone used EDGE ...
Dolby
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cerebus
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Perfect examples of evolutionary dead ends. Thanks.
Dolby
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... that did far more than the defining smartphone of the generation
It's not a bad phone - I just don't class it the same as you do, with lacking such basic features. Like saying a car redefines supercar territory when it wasn't a supercar itself
Selective reading I see. From wikipedia - "Early smartphones typically combined the features of a mobile phone with those of another popular consumer device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a digital camera, and/or a GPS navigation unit. Later smartphones include all of those plus the features of a touchscreen computer, including web browsing, Wi-Fi, and 3rd-party apps."
And once again, who cares about 3G vs Edge? I didn't, and as it turned out, millions of others didn't. It had WiFi.
These random things like 3G and cut and paste really seem to get you worked up...
... that did far more than the defining smartphone of the generation
It's not a bad phone - I just don't class it the same as you do, with lacking such basic features. Like saying a car redefines supercar territory when it wasn't a supercar itself
No what you are saying is that a supercar was not a supercar because it didn't have ABS.
For people that cared about ABS, that might be important. For others not.
Dolby
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Which other phones also had at the time - and more. But you say the iPhone was better because of the simple OS and music? Errr.
Having a decent connection kinda is paramount :/
The millions of others didn't care about it because they had a cool and really expensive toy to show show off with. Millions of people buy Bose as well and don't care about real audio quality - it's expensive and a status symbol, and that's what really matters. Form over function
So you think function is more important that form. I don't.
And as I specified earlier, the things I found important are what you what you find every manufacturer doing now.
Seems those things were what was important. That is defining a category
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Not really. I used WiFi mostly, and EDGE was fine for the odd occasion that there wasn't WiFi.
SeRpEnT
Executive Member
These things are driving sales for the two big competitors in my opinion:
Apple:
Status symbol
Gadget (albeit a very basic one)
Status symbol
Build quality
Status symbol
Idiot proof
Marketing
Samsung:
Gadget.
Marketing.
I think its clear that the Samsung's marketing is not saving it anymore. And the gadget lovers find it hard to justify the newer devices compared to the old ones as not enough has improved. Also the real gadget lovers dont have the deep pockets of the ifanatics who needs to keep up with the Joneses.
I have said it before and I will say it again: Apple is for image conscious status obsessed people
Apple:
Status symbol
Gadget (albeit a very basic one)
Status symbol
Build quality
Status symbol
Idiot proof
Marketing
Samsung:
Gadget.
Marketing.
I think its clear that the Samsung's marketing is not saving it anymore. And the gadget lovers find it hard to justify the newer devices compared to the old ones as not enough has improved. Also the real gadget lovers dont have the deep pockets of the ifanatics who needs to keep up with the Joneses.
I have said it before and I will say it again: Apple is for image conscious status obsessed people
Dolby
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You hardly had a choice on what connection to use - we both know EDGE is horribly slow and near useless for much. We get EDGE at the corner of our office and browsing a simple webpage is painful.
However - I'm glad it was something people could overlook because they had a cool device ...
However - I'm glad it was something people could overlook because they had a cool device ...
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iphone certainly wasn't the first smartphone out there. But if did redefine smartphones and today they pretty much all look like the original iphone.
I believe the Ericsson GS88 was the first phone to branded as a smartphone. The Nokia 9000 Communicator was probably the first real smartphone.
Was the original iphone a smartphone ?Of course it was. It was programmable. Sure it didn't have all the features, such copy and paste out of the box, but you could add these by jailbreaking it.
The fact that you could add features later by updating the software, made it a smartphone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation)
I believe the Ericsson GS88 was the first phone to branded as a smartphone. The Nokia 9000 Communicator was probably the first real smartphone.
Was the original iphone a smartphone ?Of course it was. It was programmable. Sure it didn't have all the features, such copy and paste out of the box, but you could add these by jailbreaking it.
The fact that you could add features later by updating the software, made it a smartphone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_(1st_generation)
Dolby
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How many others ways could you have a full touch screen on a phone?
Have noticed how many TVs looks similar too?
Anyhow - we're not debating on copying designs in this thread, but rather how it defined smart. It all comes down to a difference of opinion really.
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cerebus
Honorary Master
It wasn't something people overlooked at all. They complained vociferously, reviews complained - same with the copy/paste and MMS features. Those were also the first things Apple worked to bring out with the 3G. They couldn't include 3G in the 1st gen because the battery life couldn't sustain it, and other features were probably just a lack of development time. It's not like those were unimportant features, and the iPhone didn't start to sell through in really enormous quantities until the 3GS. But the 1st gen model was a critical foundation and unless you're totally bloody mindedly myopic, the iPhone still managed to redefine smartphones.
On another point, Samsung's real problem now, IMHHHO, is the difficulty of competing as a pure OEM at all. It's exactly the same problem Windows machines faced, where the hardware OEMs can't differentiate on software, end up fighting over increasingly homogenised hardware specs, and are forced to cut costs and margins to survive, which also cuts into the quality of their hardware. Apple do have a unique position in the market of controlling what is still the best app ecosystem and controlling their own hardware and software, so they're able to differentiate quite easily.
phoneJunky
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That was the reason I didn't get me one. Was the most important smart feature for me.
Didn't have wifi though - connected to the internet through my phone and data bundles and wanted to use the gps function. Opted for a garmin then.
I did later get the iPad, but the no updating larger than 10 meg files were really irritating to me. It wasn't really South African friendly when it started out. We didn't really have freely available wifi hotspot like USA had.
But luckily all of those issues have been addressed in some form or other.
The iPhone did redefine the smartphone world. I had a Sony ericson p900 and other "smart" devices after that, that had a touch screen and a stylus, so the iPhone wasn't first there, but nothing out there then had the user interaction that the iPhone had. The OS redefined the game in my opinion and it didn't hurt that it looked really good. The screen wasn't sunk in half a centimeter like the other touch screen devices was. The screen was more responsive, multi touch features that I think they probably invented (I don't know, but it was the first time I saw it) and an app store. There whole strategy changed the game. Compare the whole eco-system to say Nokia and BB back then. There was no contest really.
well.... until the iphone, they all either had really small screens or the open flap version.........
Its because of the iphone, that everyone decided, "oh wait..." full touch screen is the way to go. Now its a no brainer. It wasn't a no brainer in 2006 or earlier.
As for your TV analogy, you don't recall the small little Sonly screens in the 70's do you ?
Biscuit1018
Expert Member
Of course there were Nokias that had 3G etc.
The iPhone did redefine the way phones looked and more importantly how people interacted with them
Before the iPhone the smartphone either had a keyboard or a stylus. Multi-touch wasnt around.
The 1st iPhone in 2007 ... I dont even remember many in SA
A year later the 3G hit that fixed many of the holes
Agreed