Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

Why do people on this site state the iPhone is not a “real smartphone” but WinMo, Android supposedly are?

With my Jailbroken Iphone 4, I can:

1. Tether through wifi and use it as a wifi hotspot free

2. Customize the lock screen with weather, calendars etc.
3. Run all sorts of great apps and games and can multitask
4. There are all sorts of legal and illegal apps and hacks
5. Use GPS, Music Player, Bluetooth, Wifi, 3G
6. Take pictures and Hi-Def videos and have a built in flash
7. Browse web sites just as fast and good as on my laptop
8. Built in email and calendar syncs with my outlook at work
9. On top of all that, it still makes phone calls and text messages, plus I get great ATT service.

To me, this is not only a smartphone, its like a laptop replacement. My laptop just collects dust now, I don’t see what’s the point of turning on a laptop when I can do almost everything right on my iphone with that beautiful hi-def screen.

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

Well you're starting off with a blanket statement.

I consider it a smartphone, and the fact that we have a forum for it shows that we do consider it a "smart phone",

but again, PPCG, and XDA are basically WM and Android subscribers and developers. the iPhone can do tons more than a Blackberry can, and people consider that a "smart phone"

the question of why "some" people do not consider it a smartphone has more to do with social interactions and fitting into a societal clique than an actual objective classification.

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

the iPhone is a smart-phone, but this term is relative, Not really a reason to make a thread about it reinforcing ones opinion on why it should or shouldn't be.

Just as a observation, a smart device of any nature is not a laptop replacement, but it is a great tool and a entertainment replacement for some. I don't think ill ever see my self compiling kernels for example, on an iPhone or any smart phone for that matter. My good old laptop will continue to do this for me.

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

But can it solve a rubrics cube or launch a rocket into space? O.o lol


Let me kinda explain what happened....originally we had 3 definitions...

a dumb phone (all the general phones)
smartphone (a phone like a blackberry or a winmo phone with no touch screen)
pocketpc (winmo, symbian, palm and etc with a touch screen)

Then came the evil deranged man with an apple and released horror and agony upon the world..err..I mean iphone was released which emphasized staying away from pcs and having a cool phone...

This opened a new "definition" for stuff...pocketpc went into oblivion and left us with 2 meanings...but how the meanings are interpreted depends on the individual..the most common being these 2:

A) a phone that allows you to perform advanced tasks and has apps
Smartphone: winmo,android,iphone, blackberry,webos
Dumb phone: pretty much everything else

B) a phone that is not locked down and allows customization and tinkering with the OS.
Smartphone: winmo,android
Dumb phone: iphone, Instinct, blackberry

(and yes WebOS was left out cause it really didn't have life in it yet to judge..for now I guess most are ok with calling it a smartphone mostly n premises that palm always made pocketpcs/smartphones)

So yeah..now the meanings are kinds complicated...in general A is used by the carriers and general pubic..and B is used by the community with the exception of the iphone community of course.

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

that's a pretty subjective defintion and categorization. on an iPhone you can change the wallpaper, theme it in thousands of ways, change the OS sounds, tether, carrier unlock and "customize and tinker with the OS" in so many ways.

The only difference really is that on an iPhone you can't flash a new SPL and hence cannot really flash custom ROMs. So if you want to change the definition of smartphone to "can flash custom SPL or custom recovery and hence flash completely customized ROMs instead of just hacking the existing firmware to enable root access and modify the OS by fooling the bootloader into thinking you are actually flashing a shipped firmware version" then I guess you could categorize the iPhone outside of the other 2.

But to compare it an Instinct and a Blackberry is willful disinfo IMO

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

Hey I'm not the one who made this up..this is from what I gather from what people are considering....the largest amount of the people considers A..B is what most of the community most likely considers...

We both know if it were up to me I'd place the iPhone right besides the Jitterbug ;)

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

well I just mean that some people have a tendency to have this "everyone likes the iPhone, so therefore I hate it because it's cool to go against the status quo" and then justify that by saying "yeah but you can't flash CM RC 3 on an iPhone!!"

I actually much prefer Android over iOS and lately I've been preferring WinMo over Android because of Emulation and Wii remote compatibility.

But it is what it is nomsayin

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

my friends lg shine can surf the web, retrieve email, and play music. hell, it even has copy and paste! lol. would you consider it a smart phone? me either. just like the iphone. id say more of a "media phone". if any thing, id say its a unique platform.

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

This LG Shine sounds pretty sweet.

can you change all the icons and lockscreen, theme it with weather clocks, animated weather, animated backgrounds, download thousands of apps that let you manage your bank accounts, order food, play a shitload of games, manage your DVR thru an app, draw/paint, upload pics directly to facebook, integrate stuff with facebook, post ads on craigslist via an app, bid on ebay via an app, carrier unlock it?

Does it have a better GPU than any snapdragon device?

Does it have video conferencing?

Can you put a custom boot logo on it?

Can you put Android on it?

Can it multitask?


And it does a lot more than that too.


Any flip-phone now can copy/paste, play music, and retrieve email...

Re: Why is iPhone not considered a smartphone?
 

ehh. like i said. its a unique platform. a very good feature phone. im glad your happy with it. just so you know, i cant contend with all your points, but jsyk, any phone can access your bank account or order food. its called calling the bank or the restraunt. i dont think a ton of worthless apps make it any better. any phone can control dvr through text. thats old stuff.
i know how important a custom boot logo is... id want that apple off my phone too.