[cubefox]

No, accelerometers detect acceleration in linear direction (up/down, left/right, forward/backward), while gyroscopes detect rotation (pitch, yaw, roll). Smartphones have both, to detect all six degrees of freedom.

Edit: Apparently, for smartphones, all these sensors are integrated into a single MEMS chip, one sensor for each degree of freedom, three accelerometers and three gyroscopes: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9X4frIQo7x0

[dekhn]

BTW, smartphone acceleromoters are also packaged for hobbyists; a board like https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019 can be easily used to make any number of applications when coupled with a microcontroller. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-mma8451-accelerometer-br...

[mintplant]

And the reason accelerometers can be used for sensing orientation here on Earth is, of course, because of the constant force of gravity :)

[cubefox]

Interesting point. I guess this is much less precise than gyroscopes though.