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The average adult is required to be available by phone. Not by snapchat, not by skype, not even by text message. By. Phone. In tech-land and teen-land you can

The average adult is required to be available by phone. Not by snapchat, not by skype, not even by text message. By. Phone. In tech-land and teen-land you can specify platforms to each of your relationships. But in the average American's day, doctors, daycare providers, clients, etc are all going to be contacting you by phone. Without being required to carry around the phone part, a pocket-sized tablet would have 10x less adoption than it does today. "smart phone" it still is.

thebaer 11y ago
It doesn't make the point invalid. There are laptops that connect to cell networks. I can make calls to landlines from my desktop. That doesn't change the name, because it does a lot more. I can also use these devices without a SIM card and never make a phone call. The evolution of the device definitely led to the name, but it's clear that that's just another peripheral use, like taking photos, listening to music, or getting turn-by-turn driving directions. If any device had all those capabilties, we'd call it a computer of some kind. You're not going to get the media to use the name "palmtop," but if the tech community adopted it I think we'd do and see things a little differently.
lfowles 11y ago
> But in the average American's day, doctors, daycare providers, clients, etc are all going to be contacting you by phone. Heh. My eye doctor just confirmed my upcoming appointment via text message. I'm sure they would be calling if anything outside of the most common case needed resolved, however.
Razengan 11y ago
Not to mention that you can have multiple accounts on any social network, and switch between them at any time, but you can have only one phone number on that mobile device, whatever you want to call it. So if that device is uniquely identifiable by a phone number, and only you can be the only user of that number at any time (again unlike social network accounts), might as well call it a phone.
- kruczek 11y ago
  > but you can have only one phone number on that mobile device Not necessarily. There are phones which can hold two SIM cards.

thebaer 11y ago

It doesn't make the point invalid. There are laptops that connect to cell networks. I can make calls to landlines from my desktop. That doesn't change the name, because it does a lot more. I can also use these devices without a SIM card and never make a phone call. The evolution of the device definitely led to the name, but it's clear that that's just another peripheral use, like taking photos, listening to music, or getting turn-by-turn driving directions. If any device had all those capabilties, we'd call it a computer of some kind. You're not going to get the media to use the name "palmtop," but if the tech community adopted it I think we'd do and see things a little differently.

lfowles 11y ago

> But in the average American's day, doctors, daycare providers, clients, etc are all going to be contacting you by phone. Heh. My eye doctor just confirmed my upcoming appointment via text message. I'm sure they would be calling if anything outside of the most common case needed resolved, however.

Razengan 11y ago

Not to mention that you can have multiple accounts on any social network, and switch between them at any time, but you can have only one phone number on that mobile device, whatever you want to call it. So if that device is uniquely identifiable by a phone number, and only you can be the only user of that number at any time (again unlike social network accounts), might as well call it a phone.

kruczek 11y ago
> but you can have only one phone number on that mobile device Not necessarily. There are phones which can hold two SIM cards.