Smart phones

There is no agreement in the industry about what a smartphone actually is and definitions have changed over time.According to David Wood, EVP at Symbian, "Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamental ways: how they are built and what they can do."Other definitions put different stresses on these two factors.Most devices considered smartphones today use an identifiable operating system, often with the ability to add applications (e.g. for enhanced data processing, connectivity or entertainment) - in contrast to regular phones which only support sandboxed applications (like Java games)[citation needed]. These smartphone applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the network operator or by any other third-party software developer[citation needed].
In terms of features, most smartphones support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer. 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 mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry.
OPERATING SYSTEMS USED ON SMART PHONES
The most common operating systems (OS) used in smartphones are:
Symbian OS from Symbian Ltd. (65% Market Share Sales Q4 2007) Symbian has the largest share in most markets worldwide, but lags behind other companies in the relatively small but highly visible North American market.[13] This matches the success of its largest shareholder[14] and customer, Nokia, in all markets except Japan. Nokia itself enjoys 52.9% of the smartphone market.[15] 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.[16] It is used by all the major handset manufacturers, including BenQ, LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson.[17] It has received some adverse press attention due to virus threats (actually trojan horses).[18] Windows Mobile from Microsoft (12% Market Share Sales Q4 2007) 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 (11% Market Share Sales Q4 2007) 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. iPhone OS from Apple Inc. (7% Market Share Sales Q4 2007) The iPhone uses an operating system called iPhone OS derived from Mac OS X. Third party applications can be made available for normal iPhone users by creating a web service that can be accessed via the included web browser. Native application support was recently announced in March 2008 and currently requires a beta version of the iPhone OS which is available to developers and corporations for testing purposes. The new release of iPhone OS should be made available in June 2008.[19] Linux operating system (5% Market Share Sales Q4 2007) Linux is strongest in China where it is used by Motorola, and in Japan, used by DoCoMo.[20][21] 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.[22][23] PalmSource (now Access) is moving towards an interface running on Linux.[24] Another platform based on Linux is being developed by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung, and Vodafone.[25] Palm OS developed by PalmSource (now a subsidiary of ACCESS). PalmSource traditionally used its own platform developed by Palm Inc. Access Linux Platform (ALP) is an improvement that was 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.