Advanced | Help | Encyclopedia
Directory

• Encyclopaedia
• S
• Sm
• Sma
• Smb
• Smc
• Smd
• Sme
• Smf
• Smg
• Smh
• Smi
• Smj
• Smk
• Sml
• Smm
• Smn
• Smo
• Smp
• Smq
• Smr
• Sms
• Smt
• Smu
• Smv
• Smw
• Smx
• Smy
• Smz

Smartphone

Nokia 3620

A smartphone is generally considered any handheld device that integrates personal information management and mobile phone capabilities in the same device. Often, this includes adding phone functions to already capable PDAs or putting "smart" capabilities, such as PDA functions, into a mobile phone.

The key feature of a smartphone is that one can install additional applications to the device. The applications can be developed by the manufacturer of the handheld device, by the operator or by any other 3rd party software developer.

As of 2004 smartphones are an increasingly large part of the mobile phone market. In a couple years, it is likely that most phones sold will be considered "smart", except for disposable phones.

Most common operating systems are Symbian (developed by a group of renowned mobile phone solution providers), Palm OS (developed by PalmSource), Windows CE (developed by Microsoft), BREW (technically a platform developed by Qualcomm) and Linux. It is worth noting that Symbian is technically not an OS. It is set of tools that developers use to provide specific solutions that may be classified smart such as Email, for instance.

Symbian is currently marketed in five different incompatible versions. As a consequence it faces the challenge of providing common compatible solutions to all existing units. This is may be further complicated with the upcoming Symbian 8.0 release which is not backwards compatible. Palm OS, unlike Symbian, is full-fledged backwards compatible mobile operating environment.

Smartphones in the US tend to be PDAs with phone capabilities while those in Europe and Japan tend to be phones with PDA capabilities. Features tend to include Internet access, email access, scheduling software, built-in camera, contact management, and occasionally the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office. In the CTIA conference held in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2004, incorporation of television into the smartphone was among the topics discussed.

Opera's "Small-Screen Rendering" is a special way to reformat webpages to fit inside the small screen width, hence eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling.

Table of contents

List of smartphones

Symbian OS

Palm OS

Windows CE / Windows Mobile

Linux

The embedded Linux OS for Motorola’s smartphones is currently being developed at the company’s Personal Communication Sector (PCS) in Beijing, China.

See also List of mobile telephones running Linux

Other

See also








Links: Addme | Keyword Research | Paid Inclusion | Femail | Software | Completive Intelligence

Add URL | About Slider | FREE Slider Toolbar - Simply Amazing
Copyright © 2000-2008 Slider.com. All rights reserved.
Content is distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License.