What is a Smartphone?
A smartphone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality. There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some, a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features. In terms of features, most smartphones support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer (PDA). Other functionality might include an additional interface such as a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen or a D-pad, a built-in camera, contact management, an accelerometer, built-in navigation hardware and software, the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office, media software for playing music, browsing photos and viewing video clips, internet browsers or even just secure access to company
You mention them in your reviews, but I’m not really sure what makes one phone smart and another … not smart?” Good question. I had a pretty solid working definition of my own but did some research before putting fingers to keyboard. I’ve included links to a few other helpful definitions below, but here’s what I came up with: A Smartphone is essentially a scaled-down personal computer that combines communications – including cell phone functionality – and personal data management features in a mobile device. While more and more current “non-smart” phones feature smartphone-esque features such as calendar and email applications, these key points separate smartphones from the pack: • An operating system that supports user-installable applications not necessarily approved by the manufacturer or service provider. There are literally thousands of commercial and free/shareware apps available for smartphone operating systems. While non-smartphones often support the download and installation
Smartphones are telephones that provide features that are above and beyond the simple ability to make telephone calls. While the term can be properly applied to any type of telephone, a smartphone is normally understood to be a mobile phone and not a land line telephone. Over the years, the concept of the smart phone has continued to expand as hand held devices have become more sophisticated. The first mobile phone to be considered a smartphone was designed by IBM in 1992. Given the name of Simon, the device made an appearance at COMDEX that year, and was offered to the public the following year. Several helpful features that up to that time had only been available on desktop and laptop computers were included in the functionality. Simon included a calculator, simple note pad, the ability to send and receive faxes, and an email component. In short order, the device also provided a few games for the user to enjoy, as well as a handy world clock that allowed the user to view current time
A smartphone is a small, all-in-one devices that is used for communication and computing functions. In contrast to ordinary cell phones, smartphones allow users to choose the applications that they want to install and use. This means that users can personalize the range of applications in their smartphones to suit their lifestyle and their job.
