Analyst firm Forrester has stuck its head above the parapet venturing that smartphones, as a category, are 'dead'. They may have a point seeing as a vast swathe of users - enterprise or otherwise - are now equipped with devices whose capabilities would certainly fit in with the category previously known as smart.
Features, previously the exclusive reserve of top end devices such as the iPhone, Palm's Pre and Blackberry's Storm are all now entering the mass market and highly-featured devices are available on reasonable tariffs. Throw in the increasing availability of dongles and mobile internet devices (MIDs) and it's easy to see how traditional demarcation lines in the phone sector have become blurred.
The report even ventures that it's not even a question of previously exclusively mobile lines becoming indistinct. Report author, Ian Fogg, points out that the increasing features of such devices places pressure on devices outside mobile comms that have overlapping capability. Cameras, sat nav, MP3 players and handheld games consoles are all in the firing line from such functionality and Fogg points out that anything that's within in reach and 'good enough' will have an impact on dedicated devices.
However, although the terminology may be dying out, the demand for capabilities isn't. Forrester reckons we're moving to a single category of 'intelligent phones' and labels like smart, feature or voice have all had their day when it comes to phones.
After a Masters in Computer Science, I decided that I preferred writing about IT rather than programming. My 20-year writing career has taken me to Hong Kong and London where I've edited and written for IT, business and electronics publications. In 2002 I co-founded Futurity Media with Stewart Baines where I continue to write about a range of topics such as unified communications, cloud computing and enterprise applications.