  Smartphones and robots can have an adversarial or a symbiotic relationship
because they strive to serve overlapping customer needs. While smartphones are
prevalent, humanoid robots are not. Even though considerable public and private
resources are being invested in developing and commercializing humanoid robots,
progress seems stalled and no humanoid robot can be said to be successful with
consumers. A part from the obvious engineering differences between humanoids
and smartphones, other economic factors influence this situation. On one hand,
the product cycle of robots is slower than smartphones. This makes robot
computing hardware, (as it with automobile's infotainment systems), perennially
outdated when side-by-side to a smartphone. On the other hand, the incentives
to develop Apps are high for smartphones and they are comparatively low for
robot platforms. Here, we point to how smartphones could be used to lower
hardware cost and foster robot app development.
