Smartphones may be very smart, but they are used less and less as a “phone” research by O2 has found according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. For those of you that don’t remember what a phone (telephone) is Wikipedia gives some great insight. The description begins with “The telephone (from the Greek: τῆλε, tēle, “far” and φωνή, phōnē, “voice”), colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice”. The use of a smartphone for voice communication ranks fifth after games, music, social media and the internet.
Ofcom saying the same thing too. Often we refer to our ‘mobile’ and ditch the -phone suffix. So in this example language evolution is in-step with our device habits as we make more activities ‘mobile’.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18873041