[jackalope]

Surprise, that's a software-based feature you could build for just about any phone.

That's an interesting comment. Isn't "phone" a software based feature you could build for just about any computer? I wonder if a fully featured general purpose mobile computer and ubiquitous wifi could make smartphones a thing of the past...

[IkmoIkmo]

Oh, to me it already is. When I think about naming conventions I actually think 'Personal Computer' fits best what we all still call smartphones. The smartphone is the ultimate PC, in my opinion.

Sure it's limited in some of its tasks due to the display size and the efficiency of user input for things like text editing (e.g. writing a marketing plan, programming) etc.

The fact that it's also a phone I think is the least defining feature nowadays. I personally for example would rather do away with my ability to make and receive calls, than my ability to use internet (excluding Voip) for all the other applications on my phone. If you then consider that telephony is shifting towards being an internet-based service, and as you say the phone is just a software based feature, then yes I think we're getting to a place where calling these things 'smartphones' is as silly as continuing to call a computer/laptop a 'smart calculator' or 'smart typewriter' after 1990 or whatever.

[lbearl]

Isn't that basically what smartphones are morphing into, especially as HID continually improves?