What is the difference between an iphone and a smart phone?

I am in the process of buying a new phone. What is the difference between an iphone and a smart phone? Which is one of the two is a more durable phone?|||An iPhone is a type of smart phone. Other smart phones include Droid, Blackberry, Palm, plus others.





Smart phones all have the following features in common:


- High-res color touch screen


- User-installable apps


- High speed Internet (3G or 4G, Wi-Fi)


- GPS, compass, accelerometer


- Some smart phones have real keyboards, others (like iPhone) only have on-screen keyboards





Durability depends on the specific phone model - the iPhone is probably among the more durable of all smart phones because it's metal and glass instead of plastic, but there are other smart phones that are like that too (like some of the the Verizon Droids for instance).|||The term smart phone came about when phones became more powerful in processing terms. At this point they became more like computers running more complicated applications as well as applications written by just about anyone.





The iPhone is just a smart phone made by Apple. Apple produce the hardware and operating system of the phone. This gives them complete control. They have their own app store where applications are vetted before being allowed on.





Personally I use an iPhone (3GS with 32GB memory), mainly because I liked the iPod and only wanted to carry one device around with me. Since the iPhone is also an iPod it is very good at playing music. I also believe that Apple generally make their product very easy to use. Although I work in I.T. and can work complicated systems I don’t want the hassle when it comes to my phone. The iPhone is probably more expensive compared to other phones with similar features.





Contrary to the answer by “Hugh J” iPhones can run more than one application at a time. The software was upgrade sometime ago to support this. If you are getting a new iPhone you certainly don’t need to worry about this.





Generally I’d say my iPhone is durable enough, but I keep it in a sleeve and treat it well. I’ve drop it a few times and some cracks are developing on the plastic back but it works fine and is nearly 2 years old. I’ve seen a few broken screens on other people’s iPhones though. Glass screens are harder to scratch but more likely to shatter.





Aside from getting a good case for your phone and using a screen protector you could go for a specifically tough phone. I don’t know much about the Motorola Defy but it looks pretty tough.





Try a few different phones for yourself and ask yourself what you’ll primarily be using it for. Personally I use my phone for internet and music far more than actually making calls.|||Smart phone is a category of phone, and an iPhone belongs in that category. You can only get iPhones under AT%26amp;T and Verizon in the U.S. But all carriers have some sort of smart phones available. I suggest going to a store of your mobile carrier to try out different smart phones to which ones you like best. iPhone is very popular and is very good in what it does, but some Android based phones are catching up.|||iphone is a type of smartphone. If you want to buy a smartphone buy the nokia n8 . You won't be dissapointed. It's a great phone and i am giving you this answer from my n8.|||iphone is a smart phone, but i personally like android better. here is a link and at the bottom they compare phone operations systems



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_oper…|||All iPhones are smart phones, but not all smart phones are iPhones. Just figure out which one works better for you. This website might help you pick: http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/|||Smart phone is an all encompassing term for a certain type of phone. An iPhone is a specific example of a smart phone.|||smart phones are far better then Iphones. for instance, you can only run 1 application at a time on the Iphone|||The dufference is that iPhones are smarter than smart phones.|||iPhone is better.