What is a mobile phone called?
There’s a great discussion going on on the IXDA mailing list about what we call mobile phones (and what we call sending SMS messages) in different countries. I’m trying to summarize here, please leave a comment with info on your country and also note where this list may be wrong:
- USA: Cellphone or cell, texting.
- China: “Handy phone” (?)
- Iran: mobile. (landlines are called “telephone”).
- Spain: "teléfono móvil" or "móvil".
- Denmark: mobile phone.
- UK: mobile or mobile phone.
- Philipines: cellphone.
- New Zealand: “mobile” (but cellphone is also used).
- India: mobile. Telephone or landline for a landline.
- Korea: “handphone”
- Japan: keita.
- Dutch (Netherlands): mobiele telefoon.
- Dutch (Belgium): GSM.
- France: "téléphone portable" or "portable" but since "portable" is used for laptop too some people call them "mobile".
- Germany: handy http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handy
- Indonesia, they call it hand phone or simply abbreviated as "hp" pronounced "ha-pe". "*Ha*" as if in *ha*m and "*pe*" as if in*Pe*psi. In terms of texting, they use "SMS".
- Turkey: "pocket phone" ("cep telefonu")?
In general, “text message” is more widely understood than “SMS”.
I also created a Google survey, I’ll open up the results. Fill in the form about what phones are called in your country here.
# May 5, 2009