Doug Siebert (foo@bar.bar) on 1/26/12 wrote:
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>Foo_ (foo@nomail.com) on 1/26/12 wrote:
>---------------------------
>>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.
>
>

I would agree pretty much.

One other thing to consider, I suspect that cutting down a high end phone to such minimal capability (smaller dimmer screen, slower cpu, lesser gpu, less memory, no 3g, no wireless, no gps, less sensors, etc) would allow a significant increase in the standby time without having to look too deeply at the core architecture.

My point also was more addressed to higher end smartphones, where I would assume intel and arm intend to battle, rather than the lower end.