Smartphone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The most common mobile operating systems (OS) used by modern smartphones include Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Microsoft's Windows Phone, Nokia's Symbian, RIM's BlackBerry OS, and embedded Linux distributions such as Maemo and MeeGo. Such operating systems can be installed on many different phone models, and typically each device can receive multiple OS software updates over its lifetime.
The distinction between smartphones and feature phones can be vague and there is no official definition for what constitutes the difference between them. One of the most significant differences is that the advanced application programming interfaces (APIs) on smartphones for running third-party applications[4] can allow those applications to have better integration with the phone's OS and hardware than is typical with feature phones. In comparison, feature phones more commonly run on proprietary firmware, with third-party software support through platforms such as Java ME or BREW.[1] An additional complication in distinguishing between smartphones and feature phones is that over time the capabilities of new models of feature phones can increase to exceed those of phones that had been promoted as smartphones in the past.
History
Early years
The Nokia Communicator line was the first of Nokia's smartphones starting with the Nokia 9000, released in 1996. This distinctive palmtop computer style smartphone was the result of a collaborative effort of an early successful and costly personal digital assistant (PDA) by Hewlett-Packard combined with Nokia's best-selling phone around that time, and early prototype models had the two devices fixed via a hinge. The Communicators are characterized by a clamshell design, with a feature phone display, keyboard and user interface on top of the phone, and a physical QWERTY keyboard, high-resolution display of at least 640×200 pixels and PDA user interface under the flip-top. The software was based on the GEOS V3.0 operating system, featuring email communication and text-based web browsing. In 1998, it was followed by Nokia 9110, and in 2000 by Nokia 9110i, with improved web browsing capability.
In 1997 the term 'smartphone' was used for the first time when Ericsson unveiled the concept phone GS88,[6][7] the first device labelled as 'smartphone'.[8]
Symbian
Also in 2000, the Nokia 9210 communicator was introduced, which was the first color screen model from the Nokia Communicator line. It was a true smartphone with an open operating system, the Symbian OS. It was followed by the 9500 Communicator, which also was Nokia's first cameraphone and first Wi-Fi phone. The 9300 Communicator was smaller, and the latest E90 Communicator includes GPS. The Nokia Communicator model is remarkable for also having been the most costly phone model sold by a major brand for almost the full life of the model series, costing easily 20% and sometimes 40% more than the next most expensive smartphone by any major producer.
In 2007 Nokia launched the Nokia N95 which integrated a wide range of multimedia features into a consumer-oriented smartphone: GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and TV-out. In the next few years these features would become standard on high-end smartphones. The Nokia 6110 Navigator is a Symbian based dedicated GPS phone introduced in June 2007.
In 2010 Nokia released the Nokia N8 smartphone with a stylus-free capacitive touchscreen, the first device to use the new Symbian^3 OS.[16] It featured a 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash able to record HD video in 720p, described by Mobile Burn as the best camera in a phone,[17] and satellite navigation that Mobile Choice described as the best on any phone.[18] It also featured a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing.
Symbian was the number one smartphone platform by market share from 1996 until 2011 when it dropped to second place behind Google's Android OS. In February 2011, Nokia announced that it would replace Symbian with Windows Phone as the operating system on all of its future smartphones.[19] This transition was completed in October 2011, when Nokia announced its first line of Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones, Lumia 710 and 800.[20]
Palm, Windows, and BlackBerry
In early 2001, Palm, Inc. introduced the Kyocera 6035, the first smartphone to be deployed in widespread use in the United States. This device combined the features of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a wireless phone that operated on the Verizon Wireless network. For example, a user could select a name from the PDA contact list, and the device would dial that contact's phone number. The device also supported limited web browsing.[21] The device received a very positive reception from technology publications, but the product line never became widespread outside North America.[22]
In 2001 Microsoft announced its Windows CE Pocket PC OS would be offered as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002."[23] Microsoft originally defined its Windows Smartphone products as lacking a touchscreen and offering a lower screen resolution compared to its sibling Pocket PC devices.
In early 2002 Handspring released the Palm OS Treo smartphone, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar, and contact organizer with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.[24]
In 2002 RIM released their first BlackBerry devices with integrated phone functionality and shifted the positioning of their products from 2-way pagers to email-capable mobile phones. The BlackBerry line evolved into the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use and had achieved a total customer base of about 32 million subscribers by December 2009.[25]
In February 2011 Nokia announced a plan to make Microsoft Windows Phone its main operating system of choice for new Nokia smartphones.[19]
iPhone
In July 2008, Apple introduced its second generation iPhone with a lower list price starting at $199 and 3G support. Released with it, Apple also created the App Store, adding the capability for any iPhone or iPod Touch to officially execute additional native applications (both free and paid) installed directly over a Wi-Fi or cellular network, without the more typical process at the time of requiring a PC for installation. Applications could additionally be browsed through and downloaded directly via the iTunes software client on Macintosh and Windows PCs, rather than by searching through multiple sites across the Internet. Featuring over 500 applications at launch,[31] Apple's App Store was immediately very popular,[32] quickly growing to become a huge success.[33][34]
In June 2010, Apple introduced iOS 4, which included APIs to allow third-party applications to multitask,[35] and the iPhone 4, which included a 960×640 pixel display with a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch (ppi), a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash capable of recording HD video in 720p at 30 frames per second, a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing, a 1 GHz processor, and other improvements.[36] In early 2011 the iPhone 4 became available through Verizon Wireless, ending AT&T's exclusivity of the handset in the U.S.,[37][38][39] and allowing the handset's 3G connection to be used as a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot for the first time, to up to 5 other devices.[40] Software updates subsequently added this capability to other iPhones running iOS 4.[41][42]
The iPhone 4S was announced on October 4, 2011, improving upon the iPhone 4 with a dual core A5 processor, an 8 megapixel camera capable of recording 1080p video at 30 frames per second, World phone capability allowing it to work on both GSM & CDMA networks, and the Siri automated voice assistant.[43] On October 10, Apple announced that over one million iPhone 4Ss had been pre-ordered within the first 24 hours of it being on sale, beating the 600,000 device record set by the iPhone 4,[44][45] despite the iPhone 4S failing to impress some critics at the announcement[46][47] due to their expectations of an "iPhone 5" with rumored drastic changes compared to the iPhone 4 such as a new case design and larger screen.[48] Along with the iPhone 4S Apple also released iOS 5 and iCloud, untethering iOS devices from Macintosh or Windows PCs for device activation, backup, and synchronization,[49] along with additional new and improved features.[50]
There are about 35 percent of Americans that have some sort of smartphone. This shows that the market is spreading fast and there is also more capabilities for smartphones because of this spread.[51]
Smartphones are also mainly valuable based on the operating system. For example, the iPhone runs on the iOS and other devices run different operating systems which makes the functionality of these systems different.[52]
Android
In January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One smartphone using its Android OS. Although Android has multi-touch abilities, Google initially removed that feature from the Nexus One,[54] but it was added through a firmware update on February 2, 2010.[55]
Concerning the Xperia Play smartphone, an analyst at CCS Insight said in March 2011 that "Console wars are moving to the mobile platform".[56] In the same month, the HTC EVO 3D was announced by HTC Corporation, which can produce 3D effects with no need for special glasses (autostereoscopy).[57] The HTC EVO 3D was officially released on June 24, 2011.[58]
Bada
The Bada operating system for smartphones was announced by Samsung on 10 November 2009.[59][60] The first Bada-based phone was the Samsung Wave S8500, released on June 1, 2010,[61][62] which sold one million handsets in its first 4 weeks on the market.[63]Samsung shipped 3.5 million phones running Bada in Q1 of 2011.[64] This rose to 4.5 million phones in Q2 of 2011.[65]
Visit http://www.BeyondUSB.com for the latest breakthrough in Smartphone USB to Computer USB Technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment