Maybe We Should Stop Calling Smartphones ‘Phones’
A new study is out showing that Smart phone owners use their phones as a telephone less often than other activities. Which prompts MS. Garber of the Atlantic to pose the thought: Maybe we should stop calling them phones.
Is she right?
Smart phones just aren’t used to make calls, at least not nearly as much as they are being used for other communications (facebook, text, email, photo sharing) and entertainment (games, movies, music, podcasts).
But that doesn’t mean we should stop calling them phones… Even though we use smart phones more for other activities, their main purpose is still… a phone.
People carry cell phones for security, and accessability, and now that they can do “so much more”, people do more of the “so much more.”
But people wouldn’t have them if they wern’t a phone as well. Just ask the makers of the PDA, and portable game systems.
My iPhone’s primary use is for other people (Family, Office, Friends) to be able to get a hold of me where ever I am. But that doesn’t mean I have to just sit around waiting for the calls.
I say, arguably I’m sure, that a devices primary feature doesn’t has to be it’s most used feature. For example, I use my kitchen microwave as a clock, several times a day, but I may microwave something only once a day on average. But that doesn’t mean my daughter should go “clock” her leftovers.
I say… It’s still a smart phone, even if you don’t make a call.
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