Posts Tagged touch screens
Smartphone Technology
Technology continues to advance. Today, there is a gadget for everything and the technology behind electronics continues to amaze with each new gadget having more advanced features. The days of stopping at payphones to make a call are long gone thanks to the invention of mobile phones, and now anyone can make a call from anywhere. Like everything else in technology, the mobile phone has gone through several evolutions from the beginner big bulky car phones to tiny little mobile pocket gadgets and eventually to smartphones.
Basically, the smartphone is a mini computer and phone combination. It allows for complete functionality of communication in a small wireless mobile package. It offers tons of features and capabilities, the least of which is a mobile phone.
Some of the features standard in a smartphone include, email, Internet browsing, full operating systems, GPS, camera and video capability, organizers, calendars, mp3 players, full keyboards, oh and of course the cell phone. Some smartphones also have touch screens, such as the iPhone and the newest Blackberry Storm.
The first ever smartphone was called Simon. Designed in 1992 by IBM and released to the public by BellSouth in 1993. It contained an address book, calculator, note pad, email, fax and games and by today’s advanced standards is considered pretty limited.
In 2001 RIM released the first BlackBerry smartphone which was the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use. The BlackBerry popularity was astounding with a total customer base of 8 million subscribers by June 2007. The RIM BlackBerry operating system is focused on easy operation and has recently seen an increase in third-party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support.
The BlackBerry comes in several models, including, Bold, Curve, Pearl and Storm, offering a wide range in prices and features for everyone. This year the long awaited newest model of BlackBerry Storm was released that features the first BlackBerry touch screen that is a trully unique because it clicks when you press down to provide tactile feedback when typing, clicking web links, selecting icons and more.
There are several manufacturers of smartphones today, each running their operating system, including Apple’s iPhone which is one of the best sellers of smartphones.
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Cell Phones Are Making the Transition to Smartphone Easier
With all of the smartphones out on the market today, more and more people are making the leap from their old ‘dumb’ phones to a new smartphone. These phones are so feature packed that they can sometimes be overwhelming to a novice user. Having experience selling these devices in a retail environment, I have had many customers come back telling me that they wanted to use all of the features but couldn’t figure everything out. Whether this problem is something that needs to be solved by developers or consumers doing their own research is debatable. One thing is for sure, a transition from dumb phone to smartphone would be beneficial.
In my view, smartphone users are generally a little more tech savvy than the average cell phone user. A person usually buys a smartphone because they want to be more connected and/or organized. This kind of device keeps them connected to email and their favorite websites as well as keeping track of appointments and tasks. Having knowledge of computers and being an internet user is a definite benefit when purchasing a smartphone.
What we are starting to see being developed over the past couple of years are a hybrid between the ‘dumb’ phones and smartphones. These phones are usually almost as feature packed as their smarter counter parts but have a more generic user interface and even sometimes share the same software as a regular phone. With more and more cell phones being equipped with MP3 players and microSD card slots, even the line between hybrid and regular phone is blurring. This is by no means a bad thing; the transition we are seeing throughout the cell phone industry is going to make it easier for the classic smartphone to take hold as the new standard.
Some of these hybrid phones include: Samsung Delve, Pantech Matrix, Samsung Propel, LG VU, LG enV, LG Voyager, and many more. These phones offer great features such as touch screens, full QWERTY keyboards, messaging, high resolution cameras, and email and web capabilities. While they generally are not as feature rich as their bigger brothers, they offer great services for novice to advanced cell phone users, usually at a lower cost and with less monthly fees. These phones will be the future of the cell phone industry and lead the revolution of cell phone users becoming smartphone users.
Matt has years of experience with Cell Phones, PDAs, and Smartphones with these interests being both a hobby and a career. He works in the retail wireless industry and is the editor of a site devoted to smartphones.
Tags: cell phone, cell phones, new smartphone, phone, phones, qwerty, qwerty keyboard, samsung, smartphone, smartphones, touch, touch screen, touch screens, user interface, wirelessRelated posts