Posted on 08/28/2016 4:19:35 PM PDT by Swordmaker
No, that is NOT the definition of a feature phone. A feature phone is a phone that while it does have some limited ability to do other things than basic phone functions and has apps, it is not capable of download apps from an app store, is able to run apps that are either available only from a specific carrier or apps that are pre-installed with the operating system. A feature phone most likely will have a touch screen. The "features" of the phone are limited and that is why it is called a "feature phone." It has nothing to do with the size of the screen, although most feature phones do come with a smaller screen, because they generally are budget priced phones.The iPhone 4 and earlier were NOT feature phones.
"Feature phones" are an industry classification despite how much YOU want to define to be smartphones, they just are not.There are Android makers who do not even compete in the actual smartphone market because they can't compete with the major smartphone makers. There just isn't enough money to go around, so they make feature phones. About 40% of the phones in the world are feature phones. That is just the way the market currently is broken out because a lot of the world cannot support full smartphones on their networks and many people cannot afford the bandwidth or the prices of smartphones.
Dumb basic phones also run Android and have an even more limited set of things they can do. They represent about 20% of the Android market now. One feature almost all of these have is a 10 key pad instead of any kind of QWERTY keyboard, and usually not any kind of touch pad.
Every iPhone is a smartphone, but not every Android phone is a smartphone. That is the basic fact of this market you cannot seem to grasp.
Apple started with their "Be different" meme. The absolute irony of the "1984" ad from one of the most proprietary systems ever was good for a belly laugh. It's a very "democratic" ploy that works... sometimes. d;^)
According to you, a phone with a screen less than 4" is not a smartphone. But you keep talking about "industry definition" of a smartphone. Here's one source, here's another. Neither one is what you claim is a smartphone. By your definition, a Blackberry would not be a smartphone - which is pretty proof-positive your definition is wrong.
It is only by twisted logic and flat-out fabrication that you get to the position where Apple outsells Samsung when it comes to smartphones. Only by redefining what is a smartphone can you accomplish your goal. No true Scotsman, eh?
Oh, and about the "10 key" instead of a keypad? For some countries (those with logograms, like Chinese and Japanese) a 10 key is a LOT faster because the 10 keys represent the strokes used to create the logograms. There IS no way to do a full keyboard for a language with 40,000 characters.
My stepdaughter uses "10 key" to text in Mandarin, and it's incredibly fast. Much faster than using pinyin, where you strart typing the English letters that would represent the word, then select from a list of potential logograms. A 10 key input is a LOT faster for most who learned the stroke order of writen Mandarin or Japanese.
But then, that doesn't fit in your own definition, so... Easy way to change the sale of a few hundred million phones, because of the primary written interface used because it's a different type of language.
By the way, where did you get your definition of what is a smart phone? It seems incredibly limited.
You can use Tracfone with the iPhone.
I saw Target had some deal on an IPhone using Tracfone service.
No, NOT according to me. SAMSUNG has it listed among their FEATURE PHONES. You pick one specification of that particular phone to make the defining definition of what you claim is my primary claim of what a "feature phone" is and latch onto that. That phone does not have a QWERTY key pad. I never said a Blackberry was not a smartphone, YOU ARE. . . because you are not using the industry standards and fixating on one thing I said in a description of why ONE feature phone was a feature phone to try and explain to you why it was a feature phone and not a smart phone. Is Samsung WRONG about what they are defining their products as?
Ah yes...the “I know you are but what am I” riposte. Well-played.
Calling a smart phone a “feature phone” doesn’t change it from a smart phone, any more than having some operations changes a man to a woman.
I posted definitions of what a smartphone is; those units that Samsung calls a feature phone are, in fact, smart phones. You’re the one intent on making a difference when it comes to sales. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are still smartphones by any standard definition.
So, you say I am not using the industry standards. Well, I linked to my refernces - where are yours?
Why does Computerworld feel the need to lead with such a deceptive title, when the real news in the article is the moves FROM Android TO the iPhone???
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