What is a Smartphone?

What’s a a Smart Phone? With over 3 million a month sold in the US it is pretty likely that soon you will be able to answer that question yourself! A smartphone is a device that lets people to make cell phone calls, while providing supplemental functionality which essentially are usually akin to computers. But smartphones symbolize more than just the combining of mobile phone and personal digital assistant (PDA). To better understand what a smartphone is all about a short history of its development might be useful. While the early cellular phones transformed by becoming smaller and more powerful, they also added what they could do. The initial point toward cell phones becoming smartphones was the introduction of the personal digital assistant (PDA). Just as cellular phones main function personal digital assistants, embodied in the Palm Pilot, were developed to be used as personal and portable organizers, and little more. PDAs stored address book info, ‘to-do’ lists, and could sync with PC computers. Over time PDAs gained wireless capabilties and users started emailing with them. Just as PDAs began integrated into the mobile office environment, mobile phones began sending and receiving e-mails. Personal digital assistants became more like communications devices, cellular phones gained computer-like features. The result is the smartphone. A standard definition of what is a smartphone eludes the mobile phone industry. But there are some common characteristics among smartphones, including: QWERTY Keyboard: By most definitions smartphones commonly include a QWERTY keyboard. Meaning that the keys arearranged similarly to they would be on typewriters and computer keyboards, rather than in alphabetical order. Ironically the QWERTY Keyboard was originally developed in the 1800’s to slow down typing speed to keep typewriters from jamming. We’ve been cursing that design ever since, with little hope for respite any time soon! Another common feature among smartphones is having an Operating System. Generally speaking, a smartphone will be based on an operating system that allows it to control software applications similarly a computer. The smartphone operating system is the strongest when identifying a smartphone. Some of the big names handset manufacturers use their own proprietary system which is exclusive to their brand – BlackBerry and Apple iPhone. Other operating systems are licensed to hardware manufacturers, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian operating systems are used by a wide range of handset brands. When someone says” I have a BlackBerry”, then they have a BlackBerry operating system. If someone says I have an HTC or a Samsung, it might have Android, Windows Mobile or even a Symbian operating system. However not all BlackBerry operating systems have the identical features. Software and Web Access: Just about every brand of mobile phones offer some kind of software, for managing contacts for example , however a smartphone is going to have the ability to do many more things. Surf the internet work with documents and spreadsheets, review files, download additional software programs for various uses . The expansion of high speed data networks combined with the addition of Wi-Fi, makes smartphones very practical. Communications and Messaging: Every cellular phone includes SMS text messaging, but smartphones can handle email. MMS multimedia message service video and graphics is becoming common too. In addition to being a great system for people to keep in touch, SMS can be a practical manner for software applications to exchange simple messages, and even settings commands, between mobile phones. SMS texting doesn’t require a direct connection between smartphones; the communications infrastructure for the process is already in position, and it functions across most cellular networks. One feature of SMS messaging that makes it particularly handy for mobile software programs is that it utilizes smartphone fixed identity, the phone number. SMS text messaging is the most commonly used data application on earth, with about 2.4 billion active users, or three quarters of all cellular phone subscribers. A GPS locator isn’t unique to smartphones, but smartphones are taking advantage of this technology. GPS receivers have become extremely economical as they have been miniaturized to just a few integrated circuits. Nowadays days GPS is becoming integrated into cars, boats, planes, construction equipment, movie making gear, farm machinery, laptop computers and especially mobile phones. To track a cell phone involves several primary methods of formulating mobile phone location. GPS Global Positioning System-Satellites, Triangulation, and CellID. All these technologies transform mobile phones into mobile tracking systems.