Foo_ (foo@nomail.com) on 1/26/12 wrote:
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>Yes. I think smartphones will trickle down in the coming years, because the price
>of entry-level smartphones will decrease and the price of 3G data access will decrease
>too. So people like me will soon switch to smartphones even though they won't make
>a heavy use of it, and they will expect decent standby times out of them.


There are and will be many low end Android phones coming out which will cause smartphones to entirely replace the feature phone market over the next few years. A lot of the "smartphones" will be only in name as their owners will use them only as phones, and never use any smartphone functionality such as browsing or apps. I wouldn't be surprised in fact to see disabling the ability to load apps, removing the browser, Wifi capability etc. on the very lowest end models as a method of artificial market segmentation.

I'm sure someone will make (if they aren't already) Android phones that are a bit thicker to accomodate a jumbo battery, which would allow a month of standby time for those who almost never use their phone. You're not the only who has this usage model, my retired parents have a cell phone that they only use when travelling. I think maybe my dad also brings it with him when he goes to the grocery store so he can call my mom if he can't find something on her list :)

My point in dismissing the advantage in standby when compared to the iPhone 4S is that customers who buy the iPhone or an Android phone comparable to the Medfield reference platform are buying them to be used heavily as smartphones. The battery life when actually using them is pretty much the same. The difference in standby time is only relevant to a certain segment of the feature phone replacement market, and I doubt Intel plans to (or even can) compete with ARM in that ultimate cut throat market where saving even a few pennies in the BOM rules supreme.