What Makes Smartphones Stand Out?

From landline to cellular phones, rapidly changing technology has been continuously throwing advanced versions of phones having better features and user friendly applications allowing Gen-Next to have everything at their fingertips. Smartphone is the new buzz word that is making everyone talking about. But, have you ever wondered what actually a Smartphone is and what makes it smarter than the cell phones?

In a precise definition, Smartphone is a device allows you to make calls and has the ability to send and receive e-mail, make word, pdf or PowerPoint documents, which earlier used to be a feature found in personal digital assistant (PDA) or were limited to computers. Calling a Smartphone, a computer on palm cannot be ruled out.

If we delve a little bit in the history of cell phones and PDAs, we will notice that Smartphones is a combination of both the previously developed technologies. The term Smartphone did not come up in the market until 1997, when Ericsson for the first time introduced the concept of smart phone. Though the idea of combining telephone and computer was conceptualized as early as 1973, were offered for sale from 1994.

While cell phones were limited to making calls and sending text messages, PDAs were used to story contact info, to-do-list and could sync with your computer. Eventually PDAs gained wireless connectivity and were able to send and receive e-mail, which later resulted into Smartphones.

The key features of a smartphone include operating system that allows it to run applications. For example, iPhone runs on iOS, Blackberry with Blackberry OS and there are phones that run on Google’s Android, which is fast becoming a choice of many. Smartphones allow you to download applications like for editing photos, GPS, playlist of digital tunes. The technology support 3G and 4G data network allowing you to have seamless web connectivity anytime anywhere. Dual high-resolution camera for video chat on your phone, making a presentation on the go with Wi-Fi connectivity, having USB ports are the facilities available in the Smartphones.

Smartphones have QWERTY keyboard that makes them simpler to use as the keys are laid out in the same manner as they are on the computer. Touchscreen Smartphones allow you to drag a particular data from one place to another.

Since long, the demand of smartphones has surpassed the mobile phone market all over the world. It is estimated that half of the US-based mobile consumer have smartphones, which is expected to be around 70% by the end of year 2013. Nearly 62% of the young generation of age group 25-34 own smartphone. In European and Asian mobile market, the rate of owning smartphones is accelerating at a face pace with the young generation opting for fully loaded phones than any other normal mobile device.

Pooja is a tech-expert with an extensive knowledge of mobile phones eg: Samsung Galaxy,  iphone,  android, phones computer peripherals & accessories, gadgets. She frequently writes for some of the most renowned technology blogs and her reviews are read by thousands of people worldwide.