Smartphone

A smartphone is any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other information appliance. This is often achieved by adding telephone functions to an existing PDA or putting "smart" capabilities, such as PDA functions, into a mobile phone. A key characteristic of a smartphone is that additional applications can be installed on the device. The applications can be developed by the manufacturer of the handheld device, by the operator or by any other third-party software developer.
It is more and more difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a smartphone. almost all new mobile phones have some rudimentary PDA functionality such as phonebooks, calendars, and task lists. Furthermore, BREW and Java ME devices allow for the installation of extra applications but are still not measured smartphones. There are many BREW devices with PDA functionality, the ability to run third-party applications in native code and sporting displays as large as 240x320 pixels; yet they are not considered smartphones. The elusive definition seems loosely tied to the particular operating systems listed below.
The first smartphone was called Simon intended by IBM in 1992 and shown as a idea product at COMDEX. It was free to the public in 1993 and sold by BellSouth. Besides a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. Customers could also use a stylus to write straight on its screen to create facsimiles and memos.