Smartphones Can Really Be Dumb

Cell phones are getting smarter hence the name “smartphones”, but how much smarter are they really becoming? When cell phones hit the market and quite frankly up until a few years ago you could count on your cell phone to have little or no technical flaws. The phone acted just like a regular phone with a few features including an address book, contact list and limited internet browsing capabilities. Now cell phones are becoming more and more like mini computers. You can do everything from record and edit video to downloading a whole slew of applications. Of course with the expansion of what cell phones can handle means more room for error. Just think about your computer. How many times has your computer not functioned they way you though it would, froze or had a virus? Over the past two years with the advent of the iPhone we’ve heard numerous reports about malfunctions and more recently with the Blackberry Storm. I for one know first hand when I use my T-Mobile G1. There are times when I select an application and nothing happens or I open the keyboard and the screen does not rotate. These are issues that we’re all going to have to get use to. The smartphone is no longer the cell phone of the past. Maybe smartphones aren’t dumb, but they sure can be clumsy. Let’s wait and see how the next generation of smartphones handles these issues of acting more like a computer and less like a phone.