There’s a rather interesting article here at The Register called “Whatever happened to Smartphones?” by Andrew Orlowski. It’s a rather frank discussion into todays “dumbphones” and how advanced they are plus how popular they still are when compared to smartphones.
“The European market is currently awash with PDA-style devices, many of which are operator branded, running Windows Mobile.
It’s amazingly rare to see anyone using one as their sole device. But then subsidies are generous, and Microsoft offers very generous licensing terms for new models – which explains why they enter and leave the market so quickly. So operators are happy to dangle them as a bait to lure people into experimenting with data services. I’ve met a few users who have one, and they tend to be professionals, but not technology geeks. Because these Windows PDAs are regarded as a bit of extra bling, and a bonus, this tends to temper criticism. So long as Microsoft can afford to keep flinging these anonymous gadgets at the market, people will become more accustomed to their data being in one device, and phone calls being in another. All of which suggests a long and healthy future for the dumbphone.”
Link – The Register