In the last two years or so, one word in particular has become increasingly popular in this industry: flagship. Samsung’s new flagship this or that. What’s the best flagship of 2013? Is this new phone Company X's flagship? It gets tossed around endlessly, and practically every new high-end smartphone is considered a “flagship”. But what is a flagship, exactly? What does the term actually mean? Are we using it improperly and, thusly, altering its meaning in the mobile realm? According to Wikipedia, a flagship is "the best or most important thing owned or produced by a particular ...

Make no mistake, I'm a Nexus fan. I've owned every Nexus smartphone to date. I've passed up many of the "flagship" models from other OEMs, opting instead to stick with "older" technology. Put another way, I'm usually 6-months out-of-date when it comes to the "latest and greatest" smartphone because I'm not jumping to LG, HTC, Samsung, or Sony's newest phone. With the typical contract cycle being two years in these United States, I thought using a phone for one year would be the norm. Imagine my surprise when I learned that many of you are abandoning your flagship phone so you can switch to ...