James Delahunty
27 Jan 2007 18:33
According to wireless industry analyst firm ABI Research, Apple's iPhone does not fit the criteria to be described as a Smartphone, due to some limits imposed by Apple on the device. The problem is the phone's closed Operating System, which is against the possible inclusion of third-party applications. ABI defines a Smartphone as "a cellular handset using an open, commercial operating system that supports third-party applications."
When it was revealed the iPhone was running OS X, it led to speculation that the device could be used for all kinds of consumer-conceived functionality. However, Steve Jobs crushed those hopes when he revealed that the device is definitely closed to third party applications, despite its OS X roots.
"You don't want your phone to be an open platform...Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up," Jobs told Newsweek. ABI described a feature phone as being controlled by the operator, device manufacturer, and/or carrier, whereas Smartphones "are supported by a third-party ecosystem".
"We must conclude at this point that, based on our current definition, the iPhone is not a smartphone; it is a very high-end feature phone." said ABI principal mobile broadband analyst Philip Solis. He admitted that feature phones do have third party applications, "but these are relatively weak and limited applications that work with the middleware such as Java and BREW. Applications designed for smartphones can be written to access core functionality from the OS itself, and are therefore usually more powerful and efficient. The competition in an open environment also yields more cutting edge, rich applications."
Source:
Betanews