
Despite what we and other media have hinted at, despite what Sprint itself is spending a lot of money trying to convey, the Samsung Instinct is not an iPhone killer. To be sure, Samsung and Sprint borrowed liberally from the iPhone playbook when it came to look and feel. But the comparison itself isn’t fair: The iPhone is a software platform that is growing every day, soon to have a host of applications that put it squarely in the smartphone category along with BlackBerry, Palm and Windows Mobile. The Samsung Instinct will never be mistaken for a smartphone. Then what is it? It’s the best carrier-centric feature phone I’ve ever seen, a delight to use for many—though not all—of its intended purposes.
Due to business decisions Apple and the US carriers have made, most Americans are still not faced with the choice to buy an iPhone or not. They have to pick the best “feature phone” that their carrier has to offer. That is, a phone that costs somewhere between $50 and $250, built first and foremost to make voice calls, then serve additional social purposes—messaging, photos, etc.—and, finally, offer data connectivity to the web but more importantly to e-mail.
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