The Cell Phone is Dead… Long Live The Mobile Phone… Hail The Smartphone
By Anna Johnson on March 9th, 2010Until the mid-2000s, Americans referred to mobile telephones as ‘cell phones’. The rest of the world – which embraced mobiles en masse much sooner than the United States – called them ‘mobile phones’.
Now I see that Americans don’t say ‘cell phone’ so much anymore and are increasingly using ‘mobile phone’ when referring to such devices.
But I’m curious: when did the cell phone die? And why?
Was it because European and Asian manufacturers’ mobile phones became so popular during the past decade (e.g. phones from the likes of Nokia, Samsung and LG), and such companies used ‘mobile’ in their promotional and product related materials?
Or is it due to some other cultural phenomena? Trust me, this is an interesting question for anyone interested in marketing and consumer behavior.
Now, with the emergence of smartphones – mobile phones with more advanced, PC-like functionality – ‘smartphone’ has entered the common vernacular.
No question, U.S. companies have led the way when it comes to smartphone development. Not only were the likes of Apple building the early incarnations of smartphone (i.e. the ill-fated Newton) but in the last few years U.S. companies have been responsible for a succession of ever more innovative mobile devices – Palm, Blackberry, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system to name just a few developments.
I’m not sure that ‘smartphone’ will replace ‘mobile phone’, though. Especially given the tendency of people to refer to their mobile phones as ‘mobiles’ (‘smarts’ just doesn’t work, does it?).
But I find it both odd and interesting that Americans seem to be increasingly saying ‘mobile’ rather than ‘cell’. What gives?
