Smartphones combine the functionality of a mobile phone with PC functions such as sending and receiving email, document viewing, web browsing and other Personal Information Manager (PIM) features. All major mobile network providers in the UK now offer a variety of Smartphones with varying degrees of sophistication. The rapid evolution of Smartphone technology means that the choice of devices and device capabilities is wide and often bewildering. This article provides a brief history of the major Smartphone types and their respective capabilities.
There are five major Smartphone operating systems in use today:
The Blackberry is a wireless handheld device developed by Canadian based company Research in Motion (RIM). Blackberry's are PDAs that are best known for their mobile email capabilities. The devices run a proprietary OS.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1999 | First BlackBerry released |
| 2001 | First BlackBerry with integrated mobile telephony released |
Additional to the "big 4" (Blackberry, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile), a version of the Open Source operating system Linux has been developed for mobile devices and is available commercially on a number of Smartphones. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of Open Source development and free software; unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows or Mac OS, all of its underlying source code is available to the public for anyone to freely use, modify, and redistribute subject to the appropriate license agreement(s) such as the Gnu General Public License (GPL).
Linux phones are evolving rapidly but are currently primarily only available in the Asian market. The few models available outside of the Asian market generally provide feature-phone functionality only (phone, SMS, MMS, ring-tones, wallpaper and sometimes POP3 email). Linux phones, including Smartphones, are expected to evolve in the global market over the coming years.
Palm is an operating system developed and licensed by PalmSource and was originally designed specifically for Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). The Palm family of devices has now expanded to include PDAs with telephony capabilities such as the Treo 650. The Palm OS includes a suite of basic applications including an address book, calendar, task list, calculator, clock, memo pad, palm photos and voice recording as well as synchronization and security software. Palm also boasts probably the largest catalogue of 3rd party applications for a Smartphone with over 20,000 titles available (for Palm devices running the Palm OS).
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1996 | Palm 1000 |
| 1997 | PalmPilot |
| Feb 1999 | Palm V |
| May 1999 | Palm VII |
| 2002 | Palm Treo Smartphone |
| 2002 | Palm Tungsten |
| 2004 | Palm Treo 650 |
| 2006 | Palm 750w (Windows Mobile Operating System) |
Developed by Symbian Limited, the Symbian OS was designed specifically to run on mobile devices. Symbian is owned by a number of companies including Ericsson, Panasonic, Siemens AG, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. There are a number of Symbian platforms designed to suit a variety of phone form factors, namely UIQ, Series 60, Series 80 and Series 90. UIQ and Series 60 are the most commonly used. Series 60 is primarily developed by Nokia, but also used by Sendo and Samsung. UIQ is primarily developed and used by Sony Ericsson.
Note: The only Series 90 phones commercially available are the Nokia 7700 and 7710. Series 80 was used to develop the Nokia communicators, 9210, 9290, 9300, 9500.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1991 | Psion EPOC16 |
| 1997 | Psion EPOC OS releases 1-3 |
| 1998 | Psion EPOC release 4 |
| 1999 | EPOC release 5 (aka Symbian OS v5.0) |
| 2000 | Symbian OS v5.1, Ericsson R380 released |
| 2003 | Symbian OS v7.0 |
| 2004 | Symbian OS v8.0 |
| 2005 | Symbian OS v9.1 |
Developed by software giant Microsoft, Windows Mobile is a compact version of the popular Microsoft Windows operating system designed to run on Pocket PCs, Smartphones and portable media centres.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1998 | Handheld PC (Windows CE 2.11) |
| 2000 | Pocket PC 2000 (powered by Windows CE 3.0) |
| Oct 2001 | Pocket PC 2002 (powered by Windows CE 3.0) |
| June 2003 | Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC (powered by Windows CE 4.2) Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Phone Edition (powered by Windows CE 4.2) Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone (powered by Windows CE 4.2) |
| March 2004 | Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (2003SE) for Pocket PC (powered by Windows CE 4.21) Windows Mobile 2003SE for Pocket PC Phone Edition (powered by Windows CE 4.21) Windows Mobile 2003SE for Smartphone (powered by Windows CE 4.21) |
| May 2005 | Windows Mobile 5.0 (powered by Windows CE 5.0) |
| 2007/8 | Windows Mobile, codename Crossbow |
Blackberry devices are entirely focussed at business users. Using Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), Blackberry devices can integrate into enterprises to make email and other PIM data available wirelessly to business users.
Microsoft targets the Windows Mobile Platform at both personal and business users. The wide range of features and functionality makes Windows Mobile devices appeal to everyone. The larger Pocket PC form factor is generally better suited to business users, with Smartphones appealing to both personal and business users.
Like Windows Mobile, the Symbian powered devices appeal to both personal and business users. There are a large number of Symbian powered Smartphone devices available in a wide range of form factors and designs. For instance, the Sony Ericsson P990 and M600i are better suited to business users, whilst the Sony Ericsson w950 and Nokia N80 contain features such as a camera, media player and gaming functionality which appeals to personal users.
Palm comes from a background of targeting business users with mostly PIM features and functionality. Recent palm devices such as the Treo have included more consumer friendly features such as media players; however their main market remains business users.
