People who have been using mobiles for awhile now will remember the big and bulky handsets that once fascinated all. The sheer thought of a phone that was mobile was enough to tempt people.
It soon became a status symbol to own a cellphone. In those days cellphones were oversized compared to present models. The Siemens S5 was the first to be introduced in India. It was big for the pocket and quite heavy on the belt.
The concept of cellphones quickly caught the imagination of the world. I can recall people in India crossing busy roads (which means a lot of unorganised traffic compared to the UAE) while talking loudly on their mobile phones. But with cheaper mobiles flooding the market, backed by equally tempting offers from service providers, owning a cellphone became considerably easier. What was once considered a status symbol became a necessity!
Gradually the market segmented and different models targeting specific groups came up. Prominent among these were the smartphones. This new concept would go on to change the whole mobile communication industry. Today, there's a very thin line dividing mobile phones from your computer.
What is a Smartphone?
Smartphone, as the name signifies is a phone that has smart features. It takes the mobile phone a step beyond its conventional capabilities of making and receiving calls.
So now you could use your phone to send pictures and videos via the Multimedia Messaging Service (an extension to SMS), check your emails, surf the web, synchronise your files with your computer, capture pictures and videos using a built-in camera and work on documents among a host of other functions. Because this new model was inspired by the working of a computer, smartphones too require an operating system (OS) to integrate all these functions.
Popular operating systems
Symbian OS — Symbian was the first operating system that cellphones carried. Symbian is currently owned by Nokia (almost half of the shares), Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens AG and Samsung. In fact, the series of 60 from Nokia is based on the Symbian OS. Some 165 million cumulative Symbian smartphones have been shipped so far. Symbian currently enjoys a huge share (72.4 per cent) in most markets worldwide. The Series 60 phones, including Nokia Communicator, Nokia 6600, Nokia N82, Nokia 5700 and Nokia N93i, Motorizr Z8, Sony Ericsson P990, W950 and W960 are some of the Symbian phones on the market.
Linux OS — This OS is the next most popular although a distant second with a market share of 13.3 per cent. Linux is strongest in China and Japan. It is used as a basis for a number of platforms developed by several vendors, including Motorola. Some of the cellphones using Linux are Motorola Ming, Motorola Rokr, Samsung SGH-i858 and Haier N60.
Windows Mobile — Launched as a scale down version of its Windows OS, Windows mobile soon caught the fancy of both the tech savvy and the not so techie. Windows Mobile provides the user the same ease of use as the original Windows PC. Dubai based i-mate offers Windows-powered devices. Popular Windows-based phones include the O2, HTC and i-mate series, Samsung SCH-i760, Palm Treo 750, HP iPAQ, and Moto Q.
RIM BlackBerry — This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Introduced in 1999 the BlackBerry is a wireless handheld device which supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. Developed by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), it delivers information over the wireless data networks of mobile phone service companies. The latest BlackBerry offerings are the BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and BlackBerry 8800.
A promising future
Smarthphones are slowly but surely catching up with conventional mobile phones. Increased user awareness, ease of use and the time factor (instant emails and video sharing) are resulting in volume sales of smartphones. And that in turn is bringing down the prices of these phones.
The latest entry into this highly competitive market is Apple, which has already sold its millionth iPhone just 74 days after the device was released. Sure, smartphones are here to stay!
Cnew highly rated Smartphone
Sony Ericsson P990i
Apple iPhone
RIM BlackBerry Curve
HTC Vox S710
Nokia N80
Nokia N95
Palm Treo 700p
LG KE850 Prada
Source: http://www.cnet.com/
The writer is a guru of tech who runs a trading company in Dubai
