Information AboutSmartphone |
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A smartphone is a full-featured 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 . 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, Accelerometer s 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 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, Nokia 7650 and is now called a 'smartphone' on the Nokia support site, Nokia Support Site the press release referred to it as an 'imaging phone'. Imaging Phone The term gained further credence in 2002 when Microsoft announced its mobile phone OS would thenceforth be known as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002". Windows Powered Smartphone 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 System s (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. North American Market This matches the success of its largest shareholder Symbian Shareholders and customer, threats (actually Trojan Horses ). Trojan Horses on Symbian ; 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, Shipping Linux-based Phones at ''Technology News Daily'' and in Japan, used by DoCoMo. Microsoft Excluded from DoCoMo at ''The Register'' 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 , NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic , Samsung, and Vodafone . Motorola Press Release on Partnership on Linux Platform ; 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. Gizmodo Test: iPhone NES Emulator Tested ''Market Share data from Canalys report "Worldwide smart mobile device market, Canalys Q2 2007"''1 Dual-OS handsets have also been announced, such as the FIC Neo1973 which may run OpenMoko or Windows Mobile. COMPARISON TABLE MAJOR MANUFACTURERS SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS |
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