QOTD: Importance?

Posted on October 19, 2009 by Shaun

qotd23What is the most important function your smartphone is used for? I would say that mine is financial management. It’s not an area I have historically been very good at, but Ascendo Money helps me a lot in this regard.

Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to QOTD: Importance?

  1. Sherwin says:
    October 19, 2009 at 7:30 am

    For me, i use it as a PIM so i can keep track everything especially at work. gone are the old days of using PDA’s cause smartphones are today’s PDA.

  2. jah says:
    October 19, 2009 at 7:40 am

    PIM but in particular diary and To Do list. All other functions are “nice to haves”. Having said that, the camera in my Plam Pro was very handy this weekend.

  3. Austin says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:09 am

    Diary and todo list. Datebk6 and CanDo on Palm have not yet been beaten.

  4. F1reman says:
    October 19, 2009 at 9:38 am

    First and foremost as an iPod. I use my iPhone as my car entertainment system, i.e. I play my podcasts and music through the AUX in socket in my car. iTunes sync with free podcasts (i.e. trance music, radio 4) has been a revelation. I also watch films and TV on the video whilst on a plane or train or just bored in the doctors waiting room. iphone.tvcatchup.com is a awesome (live TV over 3G).

  5. RuiD says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:41 am

    I believe I’m missing the point here… the essential and most important function(s) of a smartphone to me is to make/receive calls or SMS… that’s what they are designed for. PIM and all extra applications are “bonus” ;)

  6. RuiD says:
    October 19, 2009 at 10:51 am

    A question: a smartphone in reality is a phone with all PDA features “attached” and built around it, or is it a former standalone PDA featured later on with phone capabilities? ;)

  7. John in SA says:
    October 19, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    Great question RuiD – almost a chicken and egg scenario.
    I think the answer lies in where the individual is coming from.
    To people like myself, who were weaned on PDAs, particularly Palm PDAs, the smartphone is a PDA coupled with phone capabilities.
    To those who were unfortunate to miss the PDA era, a smartphone is probably a phone with accompanying PDA features.
    Either way Shaun, I can’t honestly say which is the most important function on my Treo, as I have a totally holistic attitude towards it and its use.

  8. Sidthebad says:
    October 19, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    I work extensively on my company laptop and my iPhone acts as my personal pc. Internet, pim, video, games and of course phone.

    It needs to do all well to be of use to me. I’d live without everything except personal pim and phone functionality. Without these I’d need another device so I guess they are the most important.

    Sid

  9. Eric says:
    October 19, 2009 at 11:08 pm

    Agree with RuiD.
    The most important feature of a smartphone is to make calls … or more importantly, to communicate with people. Whether this is email, SMS, voice or images.

    All the other nifty features – especially PIM and applications/utilities would help to make communications easier – whether that be a better calendar interface (eg. datebk) to help remind your appointments or slicker interface to help find your friends to email them. As RuiD said “it’s a phone with a PDA function built around it”.

    All other functions – predominantly entertainment oriented – such as music player, games, watching movies, video/camera function are secondary functions that can help support your communications functions.

    Perhaps it would be indicative to say that if you are playing a game or listening to music or surfing the web and a phone call or SMS comes in, you would terminate that activity to answer the call or read the SMS. Not wait until the level is finishes or the song is completed. No? :)