On 8 Dec 2005, at 17:19, Gerhard Fasol wrote:
> The term "smart phone" is a pretty useless marketing term.
Nonsense!
> Technical experts have difficult to find a meaningful
> definition of this term.
That's because it isn't a technical term. Why should it be? Most of
the words in a (natural) language aren't....
You are demanding an intensional definition. But there are lots of
words one can't give an intensional definition for that does not
admit of counter-example. "Porn"* for one. (I don't doubt it has got
a dictionary definition - but so what? I am sure there are
dictionaries with "smartphone" in.) "Car" for another.
You think people don't know what a smartphone is? I think they do -
and YOU do.
An example. Think back to the first imode phones. There is 1st gen
PHS phone on the table, a first gen imode phone and an elderly rotary
phone. I say - "bring the smartphone Gerhard!"
Which one do you pick up?
The brightest, shiniest most capable phone. Which back then would
have been the greenscale imode...
Move on a few years. There is a 702NK on the table, that same 1st
gen imode and a Panasonic 504i. I say "bring the smartphone Gerhard!"
Which one do you bring?
The brightest, shiniest most capable phone. The 702NK.
Can you give an intensional definition of "smartphone"? Probably not.
Does the "meaning" change over time? Sure - the smartest smartphone
you can buy now is going to look rather dim in 5 years time. So? It
does not mean it isn't a useful term NOW!
In a given context, would you know which phone I am referring to, and
what capabilities it must have?
Yes - I bet you do. Let's look at the context you extracted my remark
from to start this discussion...
One Knickerless May wrote...
> Another issue is that a smaller percentage of JP handsets are
> smartphones than is the case in the UK (I think - no figures),
... in a context that made it clear that what I was referring to was
the ability to install and modern browser capable of rendering pages
using certain technologies. (http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/
archives/2005-12/0060.html) Is that a definition of a smartphone that
will remain fixed over time? Certainly not - but - ah - so what?
So -
Is "smartphone" sometimes used as a marketing term?
YES. So? Lots of words are. 'Fast', for example...
Can one give a cast iron intensional definition of smartphone?
NO. So? You can't for lots of words. Doesn't mean we should banish
them from the language.
Does the meaning change over time.
SURE. But - so? It may not be useful to someone making graphs and
reports of numbers shipped and so on - but that just means you
should throw in a definition "for that purpose". In the small print.
The fact is that now, here upon this very bank and shoal of time, 8
out of 10 cats who express a preference will pick out the same
handsets from a bunch of handsets if asked to pick out the
smartphones. And in five years will pick out a different bunch.
As for the claim that it is JUST a marketing term - they are very
useful, marketing terms - they get people using new terms to cover
new things. (E.g. "podcast" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/
4504256.stm. Or a Biro. ( a "bic" in Japan.) )
What IS important is that they stay reasonably "consistent" within
a time frame. The objection really isn't that a term is USED by
marketing - more that marketing departments blur boundaries and tell
porkies...
Your philosophy of language (and yes, you have one, implicit in what
you have said to date) ties "meaning" too closely to intensional
definition.
Nick
*of course this particular feature of the word "porn" has produced a
whole industry for person anxious to determine a complete
EXTENSIONAL definition of the term...
Received on Thu Dec 8 14:54:59 2005