That's begging the question; the only reason phones aren't general-purpose computers is because Google and Apple tend to block out anything that would let the user actually use the computer as more than a toy.
Pocket PC/Windows CE/Windows Mobile all seem far more like examples of phones trying really hard to be general-purpose like, rather than examples of phones being different. And getting fairly close.
Personally I think it's hard to justify phones as something different than general purpose computers. A device that can load fairly arbitrary apps is already almost by definition a general purpose computers, it's just a matter of what has been built and/or what is allowed to be shipped, and what system resources are available (few, in many of your examples, often owing to it being the aughts). Now that the system resources are clearly no longer a differentiator, it's almost all just corporate-politics & the war-against-general-purpose-computing vested-interests enforcing the distinction.
Yeah, and Q-Tips weren't meant to go in your ear, but we do it anyway. Modern smart phones are built to run applications - they're built with a CPU, RAM, and storage, just like your desktop. The only thing special about them is the integration of the cellular phone radio/modem into the main chip. Doesn't matter what they were or weren't "meant for", it matters what they _are_. Smart phones, nowadays, are essentially general-purpose ARM computers with really good power management.
That's begging the question; the only reason phones aren't general-purpose computers is because Google and Apple tend to block out anything that would let the user actually use the computer as more than a toy.
Mobile phones preceed Google and Apple, including the whole concept of stores and selling apps.
Series 30, Series 60, brew, J2ME, Psion OS, Pocket PC,....
They were never general purpose computers.
Pocket PC/Windows CE/Windows Mobile all seem far more like examples of phones trying really hard to be general-purpose like, rather than examples of phones being different. And getting fairly close.
Personally I think it's hard to justify phones as something different than general purpose computers. A device that can load fairly arbitrary apps is already almost by definition a general purpose computers, it's just a matter of what has been built and/or what is allowed to be shipped, and what system resources are available (few, in many of your examples, often owing to it being the aughts). Now that the system resources are clearly no longer a differentiator, it's almost all just corporate-politics & the war-against-general-purpose-computing vested-interests enforcing the distinction.
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Yeah, and Q-Tips weren't meant to go in your ear, but we do it anyway. Modern smart phones are built to run applications - they're built with a CPU, RAM, and storage, just like your desktop. The only thing special about them is the integration of the cellular phone radio/modem into the main chip. Doesn't matter what they were or weren't "meant for", it matters what they _are_. Smart phones, nowadays, are essentially general-purpose ARM computers with really good power management.
Some people have this hurge to turn anything with CPU into something beyond their original purpose, the large majority of consumers don't.