Counterfoil

Received into the cataloguecounterfoilSigned by D. Knauss

The smartphone

Provisional review Last reviewed

Not fully scored yet. This may change. How we evaluate tools

Past the second watershed. Of the six balances: 1 lost, 1 tipping, 4 not assessed. Position at least 78 of 100. The balances not assessed can only move it further.

  • Biological degradation Not assessed Does this tool damage the living world, or the body, faster than either can recover? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
  • Radical monopoly Tipping Can people still meet the need another way, without this tool? Tipping: the tool has begun to cause this problem, without going past the limit.
  • Overprogramming Not assessed Does using this tool require training or certification that people cannot give each other? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
  • Polarization Lost Does this tool move power or advantage to a few, at others’ cost? Lost: the tool is clearly past the limit.
  • Obsolescence Not assessed Does this tool force people to replace what still works? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.
  • Frustration Not assessed Does this tool give back less than it takes, counting everything it takes? Not assessed: nobody has looked at this yet, so it is not counted as holding.

What it does

Puts a telephone, a camera, a map, a wallet, and a general-purpose computer in a pocket, always connected, with its software supplied through its maker’s store.

Where it stops

It doesn’t, by design. It is built to take in each new activity, from payments to proof of identity, and the company that makes its operating system decides what software it may run.

How easily you can stop using it

Hard, and harder each year, as more of ordinary life assumes one; how much is not yet sourced. You can change phones, but in practice only between two systems, and what you have bought or stored may not move with you. Repair is possible but depends on the maker’s parts and software.

This record is ours, not Illich’s. He did not live to see the smartphone. It is here because it is what the telephone became, and the two could hardly be more different. The telephone he praised carried a call and had no say in what was said. The smartphone is a general-purpose computer whose maker decides what it may run.

What is scored

  • The unit: A phone running Android or iOS, together with the app store and the account it is tied to. Left out: the voice network (see The telephone), particular apps and what they do (see The algorithmic social feed), and phones built to be repaired or to run other systems, which may deserve a record of their own.
  • The job it is tested against: Putting calls, messages, the web, maps, a camera, and payments in one pocket device. It does this reliably.
  • Where and when: Worldwide market share in September 2026; ownership in the United States in 2025; European Union rules of 2023 to 2025. These are three different populations, and the record does not yet reconcile them. Two of the six balances are assessed.

From a line to a platform

On the telephone network, the operator runs the lines and stays out of the conversation. Any phone built to the standard works. A smartphone turns that around. The company that makes its operating system also runs the store that software comes from, and sets the terms on which anyone else may reach the people who use it.

Two companies

In September 2026, Statcounter counted Android on 69.17% of the world’s mobile devices and iOS on 30.81%. Everything else together came to less than a tenth of one percent. In September 2023 the European Commission named both makers, Alphabet and Apple, among the first six “gatekeepers” under its Digital Markets Act: companies whose platforms other businesses must pass through to reach their customers.

Built to be replaced

Since 20 June 2025, phones sold in the European Union must receive operating system upgrades for at least five years after a model is last sold, and their makers must keep critical spare parts available for seven. The rules show what was missing: it took a law to make a working phone stay usable. What becomes of the discarded ones is poorly recorded. The Global E-waste Monitor counted 62 million tonnes of electronic waste of all kinds in 2022, of which 22.3% was documented as properly collected and recycled.

Hard to be without

Pew Research Center reports that 91% of adults in the United States own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011. For 16% it is their only way onto the internet: they own one and have no broadband at home. A tool that nine in ten people carry is one that everything else begins to assume.

The six balances

Scored as set out in How we evaluate tools. Two of the six balances are assessed.

  • Biological degradation: Not assessed. Electronic waste reached 62 million tonnes in 2022, and less than a quarter was documented as recycled,1 but that figure is for all electronics. The smartphone’s share, and the cost of mining its materials, are not yet sourced.
  • Radical monopoly: 1. Nine in ten American adults own one, and for one in six it is the only way online.2 How often a bank, an employer, or a public service requires one is not yet sourced; if it is often, this is a 2.
  • Overprogramming: Not assessed. What a device built to be picked up all day does to attention belongs here, and needs evidence.
  • Polarization: 2. Two companies’ systems run virtually every phone in the world,3 and both decide what software their users may install. The European Commission has designated both as gatekeepers.
  • Obsolescence: Not assessed. The European Union now requires five years of upgrades and seven of spare parts, which suggests what makers were not offering. Support periods by maker, before and after the rule, are not yet sourced, and the score turns on them.
  • Frustration: Not assessed.

Where the threshold falls

Past the second watershed, at 78. Polarization scores 2, and any balance at 2 puts a tool past the limit: 70, plus 2.5 for each of the three points in its total. Four balances are not assessed and one may be scored too low, so this is the lowest the position can be, and the record is provisional.

The telephone sits at 63, inside the convivial range. The fifteen points or more between them are the difference between a network that carries what you say and a platform that decides what you may do.

Open questions

  • Is the smartphone one tool or several? The device, its operating system, its app store, and the account behind them could each be scored.
  • Find a source for how often a smartphone is required: for banking, for work, for transit, for proof of identity. The telephone record has the same gap.
  • How long did each maker support its phones before the European rule, and how long now? Replace the argument from the law with figures.
  • Catalogue a phone built for repair, or one that runs a system its owner controls, as a separate record. Would it sit in the convivial range?
  • The United States Department of Justice sued Apple in 2024, alleging that it had monopolized smartphone markets. Find the filing, follow the case, and say what it shows about polarization.
  • Assess overprogramming and frustration from evidence, not from argument.
  • Add Canadian figures for ownership and for smartphone-only access.
  1. United Nations Institute for Training and Research and International Telecommunication Union, “The Global E-waste Monitor 2024,” 2024, https://ewastemonitor.info/the-global-e-waste-monitor-2024/. ↩︎
  2. Pew Research Center, “Mobile Fact Sheet,” November 20, 2025, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/. ↩︎
  3. Statcounter Global Stats, “Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide, September 2026,” accessed October 6, 2026, https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide. ↩︎

Sources

Review history

  1. New record. Four of six balances assessed.
  2. Biological degradation and obsolescence changed from tipping to not assessed, and the position from 83 to 78. A third outside review pointed out that the waste figure is for all electronics and that support periods are unsourced, so neither supports a score yet.

Record last updated

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