iPhone worship has seen the media lose all sense of proportion

[mcgillianaire]

John Naughton has written a timely article for The Guardian. He asks:

"Are we perhaps losing our sense of proportion? The smartphone market is interesting, but just a small segment of the overall market. In 2009, for example, something like 175m smartphones were sold. The top end of industry predictions of sales over the next few years is about 500m devices. But the world currently buys about 1.3bn phones a year, the vast majority of which are "dumbphones" – ie simple handsets that can't access the internet and which are much cheaper to own and run."

He uses Moore's Law to explain why smartphones will not go down market. Instead dumbphones will gradually become more sophisticated.

Do you agree?

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Yes, of course. I need access to broadband internet somewhere or other, but I don't need it in my phone. I also have to buy my phones entirely out of my own pocket - unlike, I suspect, a lot of the journalists who rave about them! I also need voice and text above apps etc; as such, an iPhone would be a truly awful choice of handset for me. I see it less as a phone per se, and more as a rather posh (but crippled - no Flash or Java is crippled to me) touch-screen netbook with a proprietary version of Skype built in...

...and one that the majority of actual or potential mobile users on Earth simply can't afford. The same goes for other smartphones: until and unless there's a half-decent one available for an absolute maximum of £50 with no contract, I'm not going to be interested. (Which is another point: since under-18s can't sign contracts, they can't strictly speaking have their own iPhone without shelling out several hundred quid up front. That's way beyond many.)

After all, look at the car market: Jaguars sell well and are (these days) very well built machines, but they'll never get anywhere near the sales figures of the Ford Focus. Cars like the Focus are amazingly good compared with even 30 years ago, and they're what most people want for everyday tasks. I like reading about flashy (well, unFlashy in this case, I suppose!) gadgets, but that's as far as it goes quite often.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I like the car analogy.

>no Flash or Java is crippled to me
There are ways around this, but it is crippled without them in its natural state.

>majority of actual or potential mobile users on Earth simply can't afford. The same goes for other smartphones
I know it seems obvious but that's the point I had clearly overlooked. It's easy to assume everybody can afford one when everybody around you seems to own one.

>they can't strictly speaking have their own iPhone
I read somewhere recently that the BlackBerry is the teen choice of smartphone in the UK because it's a lot cheaper and it's got free texting with other BBs.

----

I can understand why someone may not want a smartphone and a lot of it can depend on affordability! But in my case, I've always dreamed of having an all-in-one handheld device. I have long daily commutes and spend more time away from my flat than in. Broadband internet is not sufficient. I like having information at my fingertips.

[lctrc-gtr-dde.livejournal.com]

I personally have no interest in smartphones. Overkill for me. My requirements for a phone are a slim profile, good voice quality, text messaging, large memory, a logical and fast ui, long battery life and perhaps a sound recorder. And of course durability. In the long term I want the phone to also be capable of reliable speech to text and text to speech.

I'm not optimistic about good voice quality and durability.

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Yeh, I guess it boils down to personal preferences and affordability. If you don't feel the need, then it doesn't make sense. I managed to get one now, instead of a couple years down the line when I could afford it, because it was a birthday gift from my parents. But like I mentioned above, I've always wanted an all-in-one device. It'll be interesting to see how affordable phones get better.