We are not going to look into dictionary definition here. For those who are exactly not sure of what smartphone is, this post must help you a lot.
Smartphone in simple terms is a device to bridge the gap between mobile phones and computers. It is basically closer to a computer. In other words when you cannot carry a laptop, then smartphones can act as a mini laptop, small in size and sleek in design but having the better functions than a mobile phone.
The smartphone consists of operating system, storage capabilities and internal memory; there is a built-in virtual keyboard, VGA connector, Wi-Fi or 3G accesses to browse the web, applications to suite different needs and a long battery life. In other words its best of both worlds-(has capabilities of mobile phone and laptops).
Lately the smartphones are getting bigger and better boasting of powerful processors for faster multi-tasking, abundant memory, larger screens to run 4 or more applications at a time and operating systems with new features for ease of use.
There are different operating systems in the market made specifically for smartphones, namely Symbian OS, iPhone OS, Palm WebOS, BlackBerry OS, Samsung bada, Windows Mobile, Android and Maemo.
The most famous operating system considering the global smartphone sales of Q2 2009, Symbian OS is ahead of all the operating systems. But iPhone OS, Google Android and Windows Mobile is becoming popular among consumers.
Smartphone acts as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). One of the most important characteristics of PDA is that it is programmable. Programming languages such as C, C++, Java and BASIC are more than enough to write PDA applications to suite the smartphones. If you are learning any programming languages, you can also built applications to make it work in the smartphones. Thousands of apps from medical dictionary to music players to web browsers have been written for Palm and Microsoft PocketPC PDAs already. So applications are necessary for the wide adoption of PDAs. Anyways that is a different story altogether.
Some may find one device for many applications annoying, but if you are the one who is interested in carrying a single device that does everything on the road, then smartphone is the best choice to meet your needs. A smartphone can be a PDA with added network connectivity and phone functionalities.
When buying a smartphone be sure of what you want to do with the device because many people who brought the smartphone just use it for voice communications without exploring what the device does. One reason why people are not exploring the third-party software application due to lack of time or simply they don’t know what those apps do.
So what can smartphone offer?
Voice calling— Make calls like other phones. The smartphones user interface can manage multiple conference calls on the phone. Also through Wi-Fi connectivity you can connect to Skype, MSN, Yahoo or many other IMs and make free calls with those friends who are using these IMs.
Acts as Computer: It has all the features of a mini-netbook.
Camera feature: It has a camera to take all those essential intimate moments. Don’t need a camera.
Access Web 2.0: Yea this is one feature which is necessary. Opera browser for example can automatically reformat the HTML page for small screen display. One can access Web 2.0 contents such as blogs, RSS, podcasting, P2P social networks etc.
Acts as a GPS: One doesn’t need to use Global Positioning System (GPS) to find the way around. Use maps and navigate around the world.
And many more.
Apart from these, Forrester Research has also issued a report stating that 2010 will be the year of smartphones.
In a way smartphones are converged devices that combine mobility, connectivity and good usage of programming languages for applications.
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