RuiD made the following comments on Monday concerning the most important features of a smartphone-
“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” 
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? ”
This is a subject close to my heart because I use my smartphone quite a lot for voice, and that is why I chose it. However, it seems to me that it is low down on the list of requirements for many smartphone users and that most are happy to put up with poor voice performance provided the phone has a big screen, lots of apps and good connectivity.
We seem to have lost the ‘phone’ part of smartphone and are happy to walk around with PDAs with phone equipment built in. Just how far down is good voice quality on your list of smartphone requirements?
Call quality is essential for me, much more important than running “apps”. I find that WM devices now have improved call quality. My Palm Pre is acceptable but not a good as Nokia or SE Smartphones.
Here, here! I used to carry a Windows Mobile smartphone that consistently had problems with the dialing feature of the phone. It was not user friendly while on a call as well. I have moved over to a Blackberry 8900 and love it. The phone functions should have importance placed on them. The pda functions should be second. I believe that at many times we have let certain features guide our decision on what to buy. I bought the Windows Mobile phone on the basis that it could make a phone call and to converge. If I would have played with the phone the store more, I would have never got because of how it lagged on the dial screen. Maybe we need to start looking at the real reason for getting a device instead of looking at what all it can do.
Call quality is clearly important, but almost impossible to test without actually owning a phone – it’s also quite dependent on your location and choice of carrier. My previous Treo 680 and Blackberry 6100t had terrible call quality; my 2G/3G iPhones were a big step up from that, but earpiece volume still left something to be desired; and, finally, my iPhone 3GS has excellent call quality.
Like most things, it’s a balancing act. The fact is, we buy smartphones for a lot more than just voice.
I must say I still have a Clié and will continue to. As time goes by (pretty fast I must say) I found myself using the Clie (PDA) just like a very portable laptop (meaning… I use it like a laptop for documents editing, mp3, videos, some surfing, etc… and I trust in it all my sensitive data and I keep it very well guarded).
On the other hand I have the HTC smartphone. I grew to use this device as a communication device and more like a phone in spite of all its capabilities. I have in mind that it must be available at any moment and therefore the risk of getting cracked, stolen, etc is much higher. So, I don’t have many applications on it (far from what I have in the Clié) and absolutely NO sensitive data.
The Clié is well kept, the HTC is in my hands/reach 99% of time.
This is my present perspective of handheld devices.
There is another “strong” reason for me to trust the Clié more than the HTC… the operating system. Not what you are thinking about, but for another reason:
Everyone knows the Windows Mobile OS and therefore it’s much easier to get someone that can handles data. On the other hand, at least in Portugal, I’m pretty certain by now that if my Clié gets stolen or I forget it somewhere, nobody will be able to reach my sensitive data as one has to know how the OS behaves. So for this reason alone, PalmOS is safer than WM, right?
It’s just like using Win98SE and XP/Vista… Win98 has problems running contemporary issues but on the other hand it is becoming more safe to use it as everything “bad” is developped for XP/Vista, etc… the new systems
Hey… get a Windows Group 3.1 and you are free of virus forever
I am still searching for a Internet only PDA- preferably PalmOS. I have the Nokia N97 and the 5800XM. The N97 still has a really really buggy software, as well as the 5800. Both had hangs and hard resets more than once, by themselves. I lost all of my data. Problem now is I don’t trust it anymore- so what is it worth then?
Skype and other VOIP services are free or cheap enough to make a really phone number obsolete. Half of my business contacts have Skype numbers, for cost reasons.
I dont see a future for voice based telephones..