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Dark Jedi
Guest
well thats where they get ya as they know you dont need a smartphone with a data plan. with them having wifi capability. I would love to drop my data plan on my droid.
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"Feature Phone" irony.
- Thread starter Snow_Fox
- Start date
UBRocked
VZW Nexus Please!!!
After reading many of the new posts, it seems as though people want the "smartphone like abilities" but don't want to pay for the $30 data plan.
Another reason I feel feature phones will die is because of the new 4G networks. When 3G was released, the data plans emerged as we know them now. Eventually, I feel like there will be low end data phones with 3G only capabilities and a lower tiered data plan for those devices.
Verizon tried to make data plans mandatory for web "capable" feature phones and that flopped because the phones didn't come with full html browsers (this is just my opinion as to why the mandatory data plans failed).
Now if you could have a $10 3G data plan, with a 2GB cap, that would allow for email, full web browsing, and all the smartphone capabilities we have now, would feature phones still look enticing?
This is of course based on the assumption that Verizon will even continue to offer feature phones as a choice. VZW doesn't want you to pay $59.99 when they could get $69.00 from you.
Put it this way. 3G paved the way for feature phones. 4G will pave the way for the demise of feature phones. Right now we have:
- "dumb" phones (just a plain ol' cell phone)
- "feature" phones (messaging/multimedia phones)
- "smart" phones. (3G full capability goodness)
I believe that soon we will see the new lineup of:
- "dumb" phones (plain ol' cell phones AND messaging phones with no data capabilities)
- "smart" phones (non-unlimited but cheaper 3G data devices with full web/email capabilities)
- "super" phones (4G, dual core processing power, true gaming devices, with extra bells and whistles like larger/better screens, FFC's, maybe even 3D screens, etc.)
Anyone see it this way as well?
Another reason I feel feature phones will die is because of the new 4G networks. When 3G was released, the data plans emerged as we know them now. Eventually, I feel like there will be low end data phones with 3G only capabilities and a lower tiered data plan for those devices.
Verizon tried to make data plans mandatory for web "capable" feature phones and that flopped because the phones didn't come with full html browsers (this is just my opinion as to why the mandatory data plans failed).
Now if you could have a $10 3G data plan, with a 2GB cap, that would allow for email, full web browsing, and all the smartphone capabilities we have now, would feature phones still look enticing?
This is of course based on the assumption that Verizon will even continue to offer feature phones as a choice. VZW doesn't want you to pay $59.99 when they could get $69.00 from you.
Put it this way. 3G paved the way for feature phones. 4G will pave the way for the demise of feature phones. Right now we have:
- "dumb" phones (just a plain ol' cell phone)
- "feature" phones (messaging/multimedia phones)
- "smart" phones. (3G full capability goodness)
I believe that soon we will see the new lineup of:
- "dumb" phones (plain ol' cell phones AND messaging phones with no data capabilities)
- "smart" phones (non-unlimited but cheaper 3G data devices with full web/email capabilities)
- "super" phones (4G, dual core processing power, true gaming devices, with extra bells and whistles like larger/better screens, FFC's, maybe even 3D screens, etc.)
Anyone see it this way as well?
Sweet Chaos
Android Enthusiast
I'm not sure it can sync to anything. I use it as my only calendar so I have no need to sync it. I know it came with a data cable but I haven't used it once.
TBO, I don't even need a smartphone. I'm going to be paying the extra $30 a month so I have games and fun apps to keep me occupied when I'm bored. I don't even check my email every day from my desktop lol. I really just use it for gaming. So I could keep my phone and be perfectly happy, but my need to be occupied at all times is making me WANT a smartphone for that reason.
I ran into the issue of needing my calendar, I put all the years family reunions on it, days the kids start and stop school, etc. Then I have to put that beside my work calendar to see when I can patch servers and such. I can't have my work calendar on any personal device so i need my own and if I try to put my data in my work calendar it gets archived so I can't look back to the previous year to see when the family things were and can't access it outside of the work laptop. I used to carry my laptop to work with me, downsized to a netbook and now my phone when dumb phones lost the ability to have a calendar.
Thats my problem, I need a calendar and they all but eliminated them to force people to buy smartphones. And I mean a real calendar, I'm not going to be able to enter a hundred events on a small phone keyboard.
Snow_Fox
Android Expert
You actually have some pretty good points here. I honestly think we don't need any more phone differentiation though. I really think of the data plans more as a "luxury tax" than a legit necessity. I think if they do start outright calling some phones "super phones" and "smart phones" there leaves the possibility to have an "added luxury tax".
Considering the fact there is still no definition of "smart phone" (no REAL definition).
So.. then we are going to have "smart phone's" getting labeled "super phones" with no real merit.. any time a carrier thinks the phone "might" do well just label it super phone and go.
FWIW, the moto defy is my idea of a super phone. Drop it in water and keep on strollin.
@jedi
I wish it were that simple x.x I hear even on android what is supposedly one of the biggest eaters of data imaginable.. Its pretty easy to just disable the syncing, and disable mobile data and stick to wifi as needed.
Stuntman
Android Expert
This "superphone" definition seems to be catching on. On the AllAboutSymbian site, there is an article that tries to define what a "feature phone", "smartphone", "superphone" and "tablet" are. Personally, I hate the terms, smartphone and superphone. They sound more like a marketing term than anything else.
With technology advancing so quickly, we are pretty much running out of superlative terms to qualify the word "phone". Eventually, we'll just call them "phones." I pretty much just call my phone a "phone" even though it is also a browser, GPS, camera, etc.
Snow_Fox
Android Expert
Well I agree.. I don't *mind* it to some degree..
You have
cars.
Sports cars.
Super cars.
My problem is when you take this.. and then apply it to phone's with little or no regard for actually differentiating between phones.
Unlike in the car world, they know they can call anything they want whatever they want.
Even if its not a solid hardcore iron clad definition, there is more merit to the different types of cars than different types of phone's.
Especially since some feature's are "exclusive" to smartphones despite not really being a smartphone feature :/
They could add decent pda capabilities to alot of the nicer feature phone's.. Good look getting them to do it.
And I don't mean "browse the web pda" crap either. I mean like a decent calendar, to do list and a few other things like that.
So.. if there were merit to it, I'd be ok.. but, there isn't.. there isn't even a "spirit" of smart or super phone..
Everyone knows the bugatti veyron is a super car.
while the nissan 370z is a sports car..
"super phone" is just another way to try and make "my phone sound cooler than yours".
I think it goes to show outside of these forums and xda just how much of the world is bent on having a "my phone is better than yours" status symbol mentality.
UBRocked
VZW Nexus Please!!!
I know that some people don't like the phone differentiations but I think they are important because the "designation" causes price changes. Smartphones will likely range between Free and $200 while I think we will see Superphones between the $250-$350 dollar range (I really hope $300 is the max we ever see under contract!).
This is how I see it as of this generation of phones:
Smartphone - Full HTML web browser, full email capabilities, application eco-system of some kind (Android Market, BB app world, App Store, etc), has decent camera (3.2 MP or better and has video recording capabilities), etc.
Superphone - Offers all of the same components of the Smartphone but will be improved in areas like: it will be a 4G device, have top of the line cameras (8+ MP rear camera + FFC), video conferencing, dedicated CPU and GPU that can play all current graphic intensive games, HD displays, and/or 3D displays.
The distinction between Smartphone and Superphone will be fluid in nature. A superphone will usually indicate the "latest generation" of handsets. Kind of like how a "top of the line" PC will be just an decent or average PC in about 2 years. The time it will take to "downgrade" a phone from Superphone to Smartphone will be less than that though. look at all of the available phones today. They will be considered last generation devices in less than 1-2 more months!
Andy in NY
Well-Known Member
Heres how i see it:
in 1890 not everyone had electricity
in 1910 not everyone had a car
in 1930 not everyone had a refrigerator
in 1950 not every family had 2 cars
in 1970 not everyone had color tv
in 1990 not everyone had a computer
in 2010 not everyone has a smartphone
look to all previous entries proir to 2010, and imagine your life without ANY of those things. but at the time they came out, alot were looked at like "i dont see a need for ______. I have lived thus far without it"
anyone who is around for the dawning of an era is either totally for it, or totally against it. there will be a time where everyone has a smartphone, it will just be the norm.
in 1890 not everyone had electricity
in 1910 not everyone had a car
in 1930 not everyone had a refrigerator
in 1950 not every family had 2 cars
in 1970 not everyone had color tv
in 1990 not everyone had a computer
in 2010 not everyone has a smartphone
look to all previous entries proir to 2010, and imagine your life without ANY of those things. but at the time they came out, alot were looked at like "i dont see a need for ______. I have lived thus far without it"
anyone who is around for the dawning of an era is either totally for it, or totally against it. there will be a time where everyone has a smartphone, it will just be the norm.
Snow_Fox
Android Expert
That is a pretty good point.
I suppose my biggest complaint is we can still argue all day long what constitutes a "smart phone".
I think its also worth mentioning though, in a lot of ways.. the devices we have now are totally different from the originals..
IE plasma tv instead of color tv.
Or quad core super computers compared to yesterdays antique 200 mhz full sized towers..
Wonder if by the time "smartphones" become common place they will be surgically implanted at birth as a curtasy.
I suppose my biggest complaint is we can still argue all day long what constitutes a "smart phone".
I think its also worth mentioning though, in a lot of ways.. the devices we have now are totally different from the originals..
IE plasma tv instead of color tv.
Or quad core super computers compared to yesterdays antique 200 mhz full sized towers..
Wonder if by the time "smartphones" become common place they will be surgically implanted at birth as a curtasy.