GearWERKZ TechBlog

It is all over the blogosphere and the web in general. Smartphone sales are increasing. That must mean everyone wants one. I am not so sure that is the case because I am not so sure that you can count all of the sales of the iPhone and Palm Pre. If I had been postulating this concept months ago when the idea first popped into my head, it would have been based on the premise that the iPhone is not a smartphone at all. It is a media-phone, maybe even a MacPhone (as it extends the OS X experience), but not a phone designed around PIM, which is what I think of a smartphone as.

Follow up:

Months removed from that random morning thought some time ago, I am now ok with lumping the iPhone into the smartphone category. But I am still not ready to say that the recent sales figures are indicators that everyone wants a smartphone. I still take this stand because everyone who has gone out and bought a Palm Pre or iPhone has not gone because they were in the market for a smartphone.

Now, I realize that the trade researchers can not interview every single buyer to find out why they bought their particular phone. And if they tried to take a sample population of iPhone/Pre buyers, and take a percentage based on how that group responded to a set of survey questions built around "Why did you buy your smartphone?", I am not certain that the statistics would have really proven anything against so subjective of a topic.

The point remains that not everyone who has an iPhone now originally went into the store because they needed a smartphone. I have only been asked on a few occasions what the best smartphone for someone is; that they are considering a Palm, a Blackberry, or an iPhone and want to know which one is best. Usually, I am asked if I think the iPhone itself is the right choice in cell phone for them. I strongly believe that these are people who, had I advised them not to buy an iPhone, would have gone out and bought a "normal" phone. At most, they may have gone in for the slew of messaging phones that are hitting the market-place these days.

It is very dangerous for cell phone manufacturers and carriers to buy into the hype that tons of people now "get it" [how to work and live with a smartphone as part of your core digital lifestyle] and then move to flood the market with tons of smartphones. So far, it seems like the industry understands that. There are far more "dumbphones" or "half-smart phones" showing up than smartphones.

There are an increasing number of smartphones showing up, but not gluttonously so. And as the carriers continue to compete with the $99 everything plans, it seems more and more people are becoming less and less averse to carrying data plans on their cell service package. And yes, this means that there should and likely will be a moderately increasing interest in smartphones. Most recently, the fact that carriers are offering smartphones for $99 will certainly help generate that interest.

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