As cellphones get smarter, are smartphones overkill?

How much difference is there anymore between smartphones and the "feature" phone -- that breed of cellphone with basic social networking, games, and Internet connectivity?

A Microsoft exec says the two are blurring, though that may have something to do with the fact that Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is a less-smart smartphone than many of its competitors. Still, in Europe Samsung's Bada mobile OS has done well, and Nokia recently announced its Asha line of feature phones for developing countries in an attempt to bring the basic capabilities of smartphones to the masses. And when Research in Motion ships its QNX-based BlackBerry smartphones next year, the company will continue to sell its current BlackBerry OS models to developing nations. Feature phones are being used more and more for application deployment, akin to a smartphone, says Joe Shirey, Microsoft's director of developer and platform evangelism: "The big thing we're seeing is this line between the feature phone and the smartphone is really starting to blur. People are starting to deploy apps to some of these feature phones." (11/21)