Only Cingular and Verizon use "smartphone." But notice this: Both companies add "PDAs" to the smartphone label, even though neither sells non-phone PDAs. Apparently, the initials "PDA" are required in order to clarify to the public what a "smartphone" is. "Smartphone" cannot stand alone as a clear descriptor of what phones do.

Palm is the only handset maker that uses the term, but uses it for all its phones. The company doesn't use it to categorize different classes of Palm phones.

Here's the shocking, bottom-line result of my survey: Not a single major handset vendor or carrier uses "smartphone" by itself to differentiate to customers one kind of phone from another.

What does that tell us about the clarity and usefulness of "smartphone" as a category?

2. The line between "smartphones" and regular phones is blurred.