SMARTPHONE

A 'smartphone' is a full-featured mobile phone with personal computer like functionality. Most smartphones are cellphones that support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer. An important feature of most smartphones is that applications for enhanced data processing and connectivity can be installed on the device,^[1] in contrast to regular phones which support sandboxed applications. These applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the operator or by any other third-party software developer. "Smart" functionality includes any additional interface including a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen, or even just secure access to company mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry.

Contents

Definition

History

Operating Systems

Comparison table

Major manufacturers

See also

References

External links

Definition

Smartphones can be noted by several features which include, but are not limited to, touchscreen, operating system, and tethered modem capabilities on top of the default phone characteristics. A full-fledged email support seems to be a characteristic key defining feature found in all existing and announced smartphones as of 2007. Most smartphones also allow the user install extra software, normally even from third party sources, but some phones vendors like to call their phones smartphones even without this feature.
Smartphone features tend to include Internet access, e-mail access, scheduling software, built-in camera, contact management, accelerometers and some navigation software as well as occasionally the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office.

History

The first smartphone was called Simon designed by IBM in 1992 and shown as a concept product that year at COMDEX, the computer industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was released to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, send and receive FAX, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard. By today's standards, the Simon would be a fairly low-end smartphone.
The Nokia 9000, released in 1996, was marketed as a Communicator, but was arguably the first in a line of smartphones. The Ericsson R380 was sold as a 'smartphone'^[2] but could not run native 3rd party applications. Although the Nokia 9210 was arguably the first true smartphone with an open operating system, Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator.
Although the Nokia 7650, announced in 2001, was referred to as a 'smart phone' in the media,^[3] and is now called a 'smartphone' on the Nokia support site,^[4] the press release referred to it as an 'imaging phone'.^[5] The term gained further credence in 2002 when Microsoft announced its mobile phone OS would thenceforth be known as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002".^[6]
Out of 1 billion camera phones to be shipped in 2008, smartphones, the higher end of the market with full email support, will represent about 10% of the market or about 100 million units.

Operating Systems

The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones are:
;Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd. (72.4% Market Share)
:Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags other companies in the relatively small but highly visible North American market.^[7] This matches the success of its largest shareholder^[8] and customer, Nokia, in all markets except Japan. Nokia itself enjoys 44.5% of the smartphone market.^[9] In Japan Symbian is strong due to a relationship with NTT DoCoMo, with only one of the 44 Symbian handsets released in Japan coming from Nokia.^[10] It is used by all the major handset manufacturers, including Motorola, Samsung, LG, and BenQ.^[11] It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (actually trojan horses).^[12]
;Windows Mobile from Microsoft (6.1% Market Share)
:Windows CE operating system along with Windows Mobile middleware are widely spread in Asia. The two improved variants of this operating system, Windows Mobile 6 Professional (for touch screen devices) and Windows Mobile 6 Standard were unveiled February 2007 and in the first half of 2008 respectively.
;RIM BlackBerry operating system (5.3% Market Share)
:This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Recently it has seen a surge in third party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.
;Linux operating system (13.3% Market Share)
:Linux is strongest in China where it is used by Motorola,^[13] and in Japan, used by DoCoMo.^[14] Rather than being a platform in its own right, Linux is used as a basis for a number of different platforms developed by several vendors, including Motorola and TrollTech, which are mostly incompatible.^[15][16] PalmSource (now Access) is moving towards an interface running on Linux.^[17] Another platform based on Linux is being developed by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone.^[18]
;Palm OS developed by PalmSource (now a subsidiary of ACCESS). (1.6% Market Share)
:PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access Linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that is planned to be launched in the first half of 2007. It will use technical specifications from the Linux Phone Standards Forum. The Access Linux Platform will include an emulation layer to support applications developed for Palm-based devices.
;Mac OS X from Apple, Inc. (1.3% Market Share)
:The iPhone uses an operating system derived from Mac OS X. Note that Apple and AT&T do not currently allow third party programs to be installed onto iPhones. Officially, developers can only write applications for the iPhone by creating a web service that can be accessed via the included web browser. However, some have reported being able to install applications onto the iPhone via unofficial methods.^[19]
''Market Share data from Canalys report "Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q2 2007"''^[20]
Dual-OS handsets have also been announced, such as the FIC Neo1973 which may run OpenMoko or Windows Mobile.

Comparison table

Model	OS	Size	Weight	Screen resolution	Keyboard	Camera	Other
Apple iPhone[21]	OS X	81.4 cc	135g	480x320	Touch full QWERTY	2.0mp	Wi-Fi
E-TEN glofiish X500+[22]	Windows Mobile	105cc	146g	640x480 (VGA)	Soft	2.0mp	GPS, Wi-Fi
HTC P3300[23]	Windows Mobile	105cc	130g	240x320	Soft	2.0mp	GPS
Motorola RIZR Z8[24]	Symbian OS	77cc	112g	240x320	Numeric with T9	2mp	HSDPA
Motorola Q[25]	Windows Mobile	89cc	115g	320x240	Full QWERTY	1.3mp	internal GPS with no public interface
Nokia E61i[26]	Symbian OS	114cc	150g	320x240	Full QWERTY	2mp	Wi-Fi
Nokia E70[27]	Symbian OS	117 x 53 x 22 mm	127g	352x416	Full QWERTY when flipped open, Numeric with T9 when closed	2mp	Wi-Fi
Nokia E90 Communicator[28]	Symbian OS	150cc	210g	800x352 & 240x320	Full QWERTY and Numeric with T9	3.2mp	GPS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi
Nokia N95[29]	Symbian OS	110cc	120g	240x320	Numeric with T9, Multimedia	5mp	GPS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi
Palm Treo 700p[30]	Palm OS 5	151cc	180g	320x320	Full QWERTY	1.3mp
RIM BlackBerry Pearl (8100) [31]	Blackberry OS	77cc	90g	240x260	Numeric with SureType	1.3mp
RIM BlackBerry Curve (8300) [32]	Blackberry OS		111g	320x240	Full QWERTY	2.0mp
RIM BlackBerry 8700c[33]	Blackberry OS	149cc	134g	320x240	Full QWERTY	No
RIM BlackBerry 8800[34]	Blackberry OS	105cc	134g	320x240	Full QWERTY	No	GPS
Samsung Blackjack (SGH-i607)[35]	Windows Mobile 5.0	113 x 59 x 11.8 mm	105g	320x240	Full QWERTY	1.3mp with front VGA camera for video calls	HSDPA
Samsung SCH-i730	Windows Mobile 5.0	114 x 58 x 25 mm	183 g	240 x 320 pixels	Full slide-out QWERTY	1.3mp in some versions
Sony Ericsson P990[36]	Symbian OS	162cc	150g	240x320	Full QWERTY, Numeric with T9, Soft	2mp	Wi-Fi
Sony Ericsson W950ihttp://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pip1&zone=pp&pid=10336	Symbian OS	86cc	112g	240x320	Numeric with T9, Soft	No

Major manufacturers

★ Gigabyte Technology

★ Group Sense PDA

★ Hewlett-Packard

★ High Tech Computer (HTC)

★ I-mate

★ Kyocera

★ Mio Technology

★ Motorola

★ Nokia

★ Palm Inc

★ Research in Motion Limited (RIM)

★ Samsung Electronics

★ Sony Ericsson

See also

★ Danger Hiptop

★ BlackBerry

★ Palm OS

★ Symbian OS

★ Windows Mobile

★ S60 platform

★ Microbrowser

★ Camera phone

★ Videophone

★ UIQ

★ Information appliance

★ Virus statistics

References

1. Smartphone definition
2. Ericsson R380
3. Nokia 7650
4. Nokia Support Site
5. Imaging Phone
6. Windows Powered Smartphone
7. North American Market
8. Symbian Shareholders
9. Nokia's Share of the Smartphone Market Slips
10. Symbian Facts
11. Symbian Licensees
12. Trojan Horses on Symbian
13. Shipping Linux-based Phones at ''Technology News Daily''
14. Microsoft Excluded from DoCoMo at ''The Register''
15. Incompatibility in Mobile Linux at ''OS News''
16. Search Mobile Computing
17. Running on Linux
18. Motorola Press Release on Partnership on Linux Platform
19. Gizmodo Test: iPhone NES Emulator Tested
20. Symbian Fast Facts
21. http://www.apple.com/iphone
22. http://www.etencorp.com/products/Communication/X500+.php
23. http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_p3300.htm
24. http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_rizr_z8-1863.php
25. http://www.motoqwiki.com/
26. http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E61i
27. http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E70
28. http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/E90
29. http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N95
30. http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartphones/treo700p/specs.html
31. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/compare/product-attr-compare.jsp?products=203&
32. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/compare/product-attr-compare.jsp?products=483&
33. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/compare/product-attr-compare.jsp?products=65&
34. http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/compare/product-attr-compare.jsp?products=403&
35. http://www.samsungblackjack.com
36. http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=gb&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pip1&zone=pp&pid=10336

External links

★

★ "Best Selling Smartphones"