COMMENT
Definitions are everything in technology. But usually in the name of marketing, though sometimes out of confusion or for cultural reasons, they vary too much.
One way of defining technology types is through long and often complex standardisation processes. Most of us yawn at these but they're not there just to keep thousands of people tied up in technical papers. Well, maybe some of them are.
Let me cite two recent examples.
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RIM a few weeks back launched its latest BlackBerry. The Curve sits somewhere between the sexy Pearl and the more straight-laced 8800. It's an email device for sure. It also does multimedia, such as music, photos and video, which isn't what you'd normally associate with a BlackBerry.
But is it a smart phone?
The good people from RIM referred to it as such in a briefing I dipped in to. They use that term because it 'does data', browsing and has apps associated with the aforementioned multimedia.
But others would simply call this a feature device. I asked them how analysts define the device and they rightly said that depends on the analyst house.
For the record, silicon.com believes that with a smart phone you can easily add extra applications and ditch those you don't want, just as you would on a PC. It's one reason why operating systems for mobile devices are so important now.
So I might say some nice things about the Curve - but I wouldn't call it a smart phone.
Similarly, a couple of weeks back, I attended an HP session about mobile TV. That term has many connotations but in the world of operators and comms equipment providers the distinction is normally subtle - does it mean video streamed over 3G or video content broadcast using technologies such as DVB-H, MediaFLO or something else? (Here's our Cheat Sheet on the subject for an answer or two.)
But the HP exec I saw presenting was nothing if not clear. He began by saying: "The most robust platform to enjoy TV is the high-definition screen and robustness [that a laptop PC] has."
He's not wrong. Laptops often have better screens than a living room TV and if you were pushing content around using a Slingbox, for example, I'd go for a laptop over a mobile phone screen any time I could.
But his idea of 'mobile TV' is different to 99.9 per cent of everyone else's.
So these are two examples. I completely see why the companies in question both use terminology in a certain way. They are both important players in the broad tech space and may even feel they can define markets and product types.
But no one vendor - or analyst group or publication, for that matter - has the final say. Those making buying decisions should look for consensus, where possible, and remain sceptical most of the time.
Drop me an email or post a Reader Comment below if you know of any dodgy definitions out there.
