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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 feature 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 increasingly difficult to define exactly what qualifies as a smartphone. Nearly 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 additional applications but are still not considered 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 designed by IBM in 1992 and shown as a concept product at COMDEX. It was released 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 directly on its screen to create facsimiles and memos.

As of 2004 smartphones are an increasingly large part of the mobile phone market. According to analyst house Canalys smart phone shipments increased over 100% from 2004Q2 to 2005Q2, with over twelve million devices shipped in the latter period[1]. In a couple years, it is likely that most phones sold will be considered smart, except for disposable phones.

Most common operating systems are Symbian, Palm OS (developed by PalmSource), Windows Mobile (formerly known as Windows CE, and developed by Microsoft), BREW (technically a platform developed by Qualcomm), and Linux.

2005 OS Market Share
Thanks to Nokia's market dominance in 2005, Symbian is the current leader with over 62.8% market share in Q2 according to Canalys, a market research firm, and is used by five different smartphone platforms. Three of the platforms are developed by Nokia (Series 60, Series 80 & Series 90), a fourth is developed by NTT DoCoMo for the Japanese market and the final one is developed by a subsidiary of Symbian itself (UIQ). Contrary to the information published on PalmSource's website, Symbian OS v8.0 is largely backwardly compatible with previous versions. However Canalys also indicates that Windows Mobile is also increasing with a markets share of 15.9 % and an increase of 42% from Q2'04.

Smartphones are voice-centric (voice is the primary function, data is secondary) devices that offer PDA-like capabilities, whereas PDAs (such as most BlackBerries) may offer voice capabilities, but they are data-centric. Smartphones are generally capable of one-handed operation, while PDAs generally require use of both hands.

Smartphone features tend to include Internet access, e-mail access, scheduling software, built-in camera, contact management, GPS navigation software and occasionally the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office. In the CTIA conference held in Atlanta, Georgia in March 2004, incorporation of television into the smartphone was among the topics discussed.

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