Aurora

[Dr. Michael Lauer]

Hi Corey,

> On Monday, May 16, 2011 09:02:58 AM Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote:
>> NOTE: Cross-posted to three mailing lists, please keep it that way, if
>> you want to reply.
>> 
>> Aurora is supposed to be something we call a "featurephone client" –
>> featurephones being those things we used for telephony before 
>> smartphones were invented.
>> 
> 
> Could you please elaborate a bit further for those of us who are 
> unsure of the specific functional differences between a "featurephone" 
> and a "smartphone"?

For sure. Featurephone vs. Smartphone is resembling the difference
of, lets say, a Sony Ericsson K700, and an iPhone.

On the K700, the whole OS is designed around the telephony. While it
has additional "features", it doesn't allow you to install native applications
(well, yes, there are some Java applets, but these don't count as they
are not at all integrated into the system and they can't access the phone
databases nor talk to each other) – it sells because of the quality of the
telephony.

On the iPhone, the whole OS is designed around the idea of a mobile
computer that allows you to perform a vast variety of tasks. You can install a myriad
of apps and only a very minor percentage of these apps have anything to do
with telephony. The telephony is a "feature" among many others. In fact,
telephony is pretty lousy on an iPhone, but that's ok, because it is not the
feature that sells this device.

Bottom line: feature phone is less flexible, comes with everything preinstalled,
and is designed around the telephony.

Cheers,

:M: