A Smartphone is Not a Phone

I’ve seen a number of commenters (mostly from the US) arguing that people look funny holding a 5-inch phone/tablet at the side of their heads, while being surprised at how well they’ve sold so far (especially in Asia).

I think it’s because those that got these “giant phones” have subconsciously realized the obvious: their smart phone isn’t a phone. It’s actually a computer that happens to have phone-like functionalities. After all, the only difference Skype has over regular cellular voice services is the medium.

I’m guessing all these customers have performed a cost-benefit analysis in their heads during purchase (cost of looking stupid during phone calls vs amount of time making phone calls, and the benefit of having extra screen space vs amount of time on activities that benefit from that screen space e.g. email, SMS, games, videos)

When you start looking at the whole situation from this perspective, it all makes sense.