Computers and mobile phones, the line gets blurry by the minute

I’ve just read a very interesting article over at ComputerWorld (via Engadget) about a trademark issue that Apple may be having once it starts selling the iPhone in China. As the story goes, it seems that another company, Hanwang, owns a trademark for the term ‘i-phone’ on mobile phones. While Apple owns an “iphone” trademark that only covers computer hardware and software.

What caught my mind was the fact that although a few years back, it’s actually easy to differentiate between a computer and a mobile phone, it may not be the case anymore these days.

Imagine a scenario where you have a netbook with a built-in HSDPA radio that allows you to connect to the mobile network and do stuff like web browsing and email. Besides that, it also allows you to make voice calls and send SMS.

Now one might say, it’s the size that differentiates it. Well, how about one of those MID’s or UMPC like for instance the Viliv X70EX, or the even smaller Viliv S5. Or how about the rumored Nokia N900 or the just released Nokia N97.

Just what is a computer and what is a mobile phone these days?