Palm OS Applications

Starting with Palm OS version 5.2, Palm created customized versions of the common PIM application. Some new features have been added, e.g. support for Address categories, Ringtone associations to users, longer memo texts, etc.. They were also renamed to reflect designations from Microsoft Outlook, thus Address became Contacts, Datebook became Calendar, Memo Pad became Memos and To do list became Tasks.Blazer is a web browser for Palm handhelds. The versions 1.0 and 2.0 run on Palm OS 3.1 or higher handhelds, but they needed a proxy server which has been shut down, so they can no longer be used. Version 3.0 is used on the Treo 600 smartphone. The current version of Blazer is Blazer 4.5, which is compliant with most major standards. It is generally bundled with newer smartphones and newer Palm devices capable of accessing the Internet.

Note Pad

Palm's Note Pad can be used for quick drawings. With neat handwriting, 20-30 words will fit on one page; for more text, Memo Pad is the better choice. There are three sizes of pen width, plus an eraser and a background color change feature in some models. It is possible to draw a very simple map. The more "advanced" desktop version saves the Memo pad drawings to the desktop.As of 2006, most new Palm handhelds include Photos, which creates a digital photo album used to view pictures on a Palm OS device. As with all the other photo programs, photos can be beamed to other mobile devices. Each photo can be labeled and organized into separate photo albums. A slideshow can also be shown for a specific album, and each photo in the album will be shown full screen.

Photos can be edited with the Palm Photos PC software (Windows only), and when the photos are transferred to the handheld they will contain all changes made to the photo.The Palm Photos software is available in the Zire 71, Tungsten C, Tungsten E, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T3 and several others.With the support for Video, Palm Photos was later renamed to Media and even later to Pics& Videos.Some models feature the ability to make voice recordings which are synced using the Voice conduit and can be viewed on a desktop with the Voice Memo application which is part of the Palm Desktop Suite.

Symbian QT Applications

As of 2010, the SDK for Symbian is standard C++, using Qt. It can be used with either Qt Creator, or Carbide (the older IDE previously used for Symbian development). A phone simulator allows testing of Qt apps. Apps compiled for the simulator are compiled to native code for the development platform, rather than having to be emulated. Application development can either use C++ or QML.

Bada OS Apps

With the release of the Samsung Wave, Samsung opened an international application store, Samsung Apps, for the Bada platform. Samsung Apps has over 2400 applications. This store is also available for Android and Samsung feature phones.

Phones with BlackBerry email client

Several non-BlackBerry mobile phones have been released featuring the BlackBerry email client which connects to BlackBerry servers. Many of these phones have full QWERTY keyboards.

• AT&T Tilt
• HTC Advantage X7500
• HTC TyTN
• Motorola MPx220, some models
• Nokia 6810
• Nokia 6820
• Nokia 9300
• Nokia 9300i
• Nokia 9500
• Nokia Eseries phones, except models Nokia E66, Nokia E71
• Qtek 9100
• Qtek 9000
• Samsung t719
• Siemens SK65
• Sony Ericsson P910
• Sony Ericsson P990
• Sony Ericsson M600i
• Sony Ericsson P1

Windows mobile Applications

Development

Third party applications and games for Windows Phone are based on XNA or a WP7 specific version of Silverlight.For Windows Phone apps to be designed and tested within Visual Studio 2010 or Visual Studio 2010 Express editions, Microsoft offers Windows Phone Developer Tools as an extension. Windows Phone Developer Tools run only on Windows Vista SP2 and later. Microsoft also offers Expression Blend for Windows Phone for free. On November 29, 2009, Microsoft announced the Release to web (RTW) version of its Visual Basic .NET Developer Tool, to allow development in Visual Basic.As it shares much of its platform, Windows Phone 8 will support the running of managed code through a Common Language Runtime similar to that of the Windows operating system itself as opposed to the .NET Compact Framework. This, along with support for native C and C++ libraries, will allow some Windows programs to be easily ported to Windows Phone 8.

Submission

Registered Windows Phone and Xbox Live developers can submit and manage their third party applications for the platforms through the App Hub web applications. The App Hub provides development tools and support for third-party application developers. The submitted applications undergo an approval process for verifications and validations to check if they qualify the applications standardization criteria set by Microsoft. The cost of the applications that are approved is up to the developer, but Microsoft will take 30% of the revenue (the other 70% goes to the developer). Microsoft will only pay developers once they reach a set sales figure, and will withhold 30% tax from non-US developers, unless they first register with the United States Government's Internal Revenue Service. Microsoft only pays developers from a list of thirty countries. A yearly fee is also payable for developers wishing to submit apps.In order to get an application to appear in the Windows Phone Store, the application must be submitted to Microsoft for approval. Microsoft has outlined the content that it will not allow in the applications, which includes content that, among other things, advocates discrimination or hate, promotes usage of drugs, alcohol or tobacco, or includes sexually suggestive material.

iOS Applications

The iOS home screen contains these default "apps". Some of these applications are hidden by default and accessed by the user through the Settings app or another method—for instance, Nike+iPod is activated through the Settings app. Many of these apps, such as Safari, the App Store, and YouTube, can also be disabled in the Restrictions section of the Settings app.

Android Applications

Android has a growing selection of third party applications, which can be acquired by users either through an app store such as Google Play or theAmazon Appstore, or by downloading and installing the application's APK file from a third-party site. The Play Store application allows users to browse, download and update apps published by Google and third-party developers, and is pre-installed on devices that comply with Google's compatibility requirements. The app filters the list of available applications to those that are compatible with the user's device, and developers may restrict their applications to particular carriers or countries for business reasons. Purchases of unwanted applications can be refunded within 15 minutes of the time of download, and some carriers offer direct carrier billing for Google Play application purchases, where the cost of the application is added to the user's monthly bill. As of September 2012, there were more than 675,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from the Play Store was 25 billion.Applications are developed in the Java language using the Android software development kit (SDK). The SDK includes a comprehensive set of development tools, including a debugger, software libraries, a handset emulator based on QEMU, documentation, sample code, and tutorials. The officially supported integrated development environment (IDE) is Eclipse using the Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin. Other development tools are available, including a Native Development Kit for applications or extensions in C or C++, Google App Inventor, a visual environment for novice programmers, and various cross platform mobile web applications frameworks.

In order to work around limitations on reaching Google services due to Internet censorship in the People's Republic of China, Android devices sold in the PRC are generally customized to use state approved services instead.

Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile was based on the Windows CE kernel and first appeared as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system. Throughout its lifespan, the operating system was available in both touchscreen and non-touchscreen formats. It was supplied with a suite of applications developed with the Microsoft Windows API and was designed to have features and appearance somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows. Third parties could develop software for Windows Mobile with no restrictions imposed by Microsoft. Software applications were eventually purchasable from Windows Marketplace for Mobile during the service's brief lifespan.

Most early touchscreen devices came with a stylus, which could be used to enter commands by tapping it on the screen. The primary touch input technology behind most devices were resistive touchscreens that often responded more accurately to a stylus for input, but could also be driven by a finger. Later devices used capacitive touchscreens, which were more suited to finger input. Along with touchscreens a large variety of form factors existed for the platform from the humble 'candy bar' style to sliding, folding and articulating keyboards.

A key software feature of Windows Mobile was ActiveSync; a data synchronization technology and protocol developed by Microsoft, originally released in 1996. This allowed servers running Microsoft Exchange Server, or other third party variants (such a Google Mail), to act as a personal information manager and share information such as email, calendar appointments, contacts or internet favorites.

Despite being replaced by Windows Phone, Windows Mobile is still in use to this day in the enterprise market by supermarket chains and courier companies.

Palm OS

In late 2001, Handspring launched their own Springboard GSM phone module with limIn early 2002, Handspring released the Palm OS Treosmartphone with both a touch screen and a full keyboard. The Treo had wireless web browsing, email, calendar, a contact organizer and mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer. Handspring was soon acquired by Palm, which released the Treo 600 and continued, though the series eventually took on Windows Mobile. The last Palm OS smartphone was the Palm Centro.

Symbian

Symbian is a mobile operating system designed for smartphones originally developed by Psion as EPOC32 and later passed to and managed bySymbian Ltd.. As of 2011 it was maintained by Accenture. It was the world's most widely used smartphone operating system until Q4 2010. It has become obsolete since 2011 when Nokia, the last remaining OEM and by far Symbian's most popular OEM, dropped the platform in favor ofWindows Phone.

The first Symbian phone, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone, was released in 2000,  and was the first device marketed as a "smartphone". It combined a PDA with a mobile phone. Later in 2000, the Nokia 9210 communicator was released.

The 7650 from 2002 was the first camera phone to hit the European market – it was also Nokia's first with a color screen display and the first to run on Nokia's Series 60 (later known as S60) platform, which would become a major smartphone platform in the coming years. In 2007, Nokia launched the Nokia N95, which integrated various multimedia features: 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.

In 2010, Nokia released the Nokia N8 smartphone with a stylus-free capacitive touchscreen, the first device to use the new Symbian^3 OS. Its 12-megapixel camera able to record HD video in 720p. It also featured a front-facing VGA camera for videoconferencing.

Some estimates indicate that the number of mobile devices shipped with the Symbian OS up to the end of Q2 2010 is 385 million. 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. This transition was completed in October 2011, when Nokia announced its first line of Windows Phone 7.5 smartphones, Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 800. Nokia committed to support its Symbian based smartphones until 2016, by releasing further OS improvements like Belle, and new devices, like the Nokia 808 PureView. On January 24, 2013, Nokia officially confirmed that 808 Pureview would be the last Symbian smartphone.

Unlike other smartphone platforms in the early years, Symbian was the first to popularize mobile phone multimedia such as music, video and gaming. The other major smartphone operating systems at the time like Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS (in those days) and Palm OS were solely focused on business-use. Despite this Symbian S60 still remained as a popular platform for business use as a result of Nokia's Communicator series such as the E90, as well as the Navigator series. Symbian's popularity in multimedia was centred in its Nseries, with devices such as the N73, N93, N95 and N97.

On September 3, 2013, Microsoft Corporation announced that they will buy Nokia's phone business and license its patents for 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion).

Bada

The Bada operating system for smartphones was announced by Samsung on 10 November 2009. The first Bada-based phone was the Samsung Wave S8500, released on June 1, 2010, which sold one million handsets in its first 4 weeks on the market.

Samsung shipped 3.5 million phones running Bada in Q1 of 2011.This rose to 4.5 million phones in Q2 of 2011.

In 2013, Bada has merged with a similar platform called Tizen.

BlackBerry

In 1999, RIM released its first BlackBerry devices, making secure real-time push-email communications possible on wireless devices. Services such as BlackBerry Messenger and the integration of all communications into a single inbox allowed users to access, create, share and act upon information instantly. There are 80 million active BlackBerry service subscribers (BIS/BES) and the 200 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped in September 2012 (twice the number since June 2010). Popular models include the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Torch (slider and all-touch) and BlackBerry Curve. Most recently, RIM has undergone a platform transition. The company has changed its name to Blackberry and is pushing out new devices on a new platform named "Blackberry 10." So far, 3 devices have been released on this platform: the full-touch "Blackberry Z10" and the Qwerty devices "Q10" and "Q5".

Windows Phone

On February 15, 2010, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation mobile OS, Windows Phone 7. Microsoft's mobile OS includes a completely over-hauled UI inspired by Microsoft's "Metro Design Language". It includes full integration of Microsoft services such as Microsoft SkyDrive and Office, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Xbox Live games and Bing, but also integrates with many other non-Microsoft services such as Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts. The new software platform has received some positive reception from the technology press and has been praised for its uniqueness.

On October 29, 2012, Microsoft released Windows Phone 8, the next generation of the operating system. Windows Phone 8 replaces its previously Windows CE-based architecture with one based on the Windows NT kernel with many components shared with Windows 8, allowing developers to easily port applications between the two platforms.

iOS

In 2007, Apple Inc. introduced the original iPhone, one of the first mobile phones to use a multi-touch interface. The iPhone was notable for its use of a large touchscreen for direct finger input as its main means of interaction, instead of a stylus, keyboard, and/or keypad as typical for smartphones at the time. It initially lacked the capability to install native applications, meaning some did not regard it as a smartphone. However in June 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone would support third-party "web 2.0 applications" running in its web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. A process called jailbreaking emerged quickly to provide unofficial third-party native applications to replace the built-in functions (such as a GPS unit, kitchen timer, radio, map book, calendar, notepad, and many others).

In July 2008, Apple introduced its second generation iPhone with a much lower list price and 3G support. Simultaneously, they introduced the App Store, which allowed any iPhone to install third party native applications (both free and paid) over a Wi-Fi or cellular network, without requiring a PC for installation. Applications could additionally be browsed through and downloaded directly via the iTunes software client. Featuring over 500 applications at launch, the App Store was very popular, and achieved over one billion downloads in the first year, and 15 billion by 2011.

In June 2010, Apple introduced iOS 4, which included APIs to allow third-party applications to multitask, and the iPhone 4, with an improved display and back-facing camera, a front-facing camera for videoconferencing, and other improvements. In early 2011 the iPhone 4 allowed customers to use the handset's 3G connection as a wireless Wi-Fi hotspot.

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. 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. Along with the iPhone 4S Apple also released iOS 5 and iCloud, untethered device activation, backup, and synchronization, along with additional features.

On September 20, 2013, Apple released the IPhone 5S that runs on the new iOS 7 operating system. During the launch in Cupertino, California, US, a series of iOS 7 features was revealed that includes a reformatted notification center, the integration of Microsoft’s Bing search engine (in place of Google), a new Photo app, and iTunes Radio. In an article published on September 19, 2013, the technology writer for the Quartz news website stated that the iPhone 5s "is easily the most powerful smartphone ever unveiled."

Apple set a record for opening weekend sales of a handset with the release of its iPhone 5C and 5S smartphones in September 2013. China was included in the list of markets for the first time and this contributed to the sales results.

Android

Android is an open-source platform founded in October 2003 by Andy Rubin and backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Motorola and Samsung, to name a few), that form the Open Handset Alliance. The first phone to use Android was released in October 2008. It was called the HTC Dream and was branded for distribution by T-Mobile as the G1. The software suite included on the phone consists of integration with Google's proprietary applications, such as Maps, Calendar, and Gmail, and a full HTML web browser. Android supports the execution of native applications and a preemptive multitasking capability (in the form of services). Third-party free and paid apps are available via Google Play, which launched in October 2008 as Android Market.

In January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One smartphone using its Android OS. Android has multi-touch abilities, but Google initially removed that feature from the Nexus One,but it was added through a firmware update on February 2, 2010. By Q4 2010, Android became the best selling smartphone platform after massive gains throughout the year.

On June 24, 2011, HTC Corporation released the HTC EVO 3D, a smartphone that can produce stereoscopic 3D effects and take 3D stereoscopic photos for viewing on its screen. Samsung Galaxy S III sales hit 18 million in the third quarter of 2012. On November 13, 2012 Google and LG released the Nexus 4 with Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.

Origin of the term

Devices that combined telephony and computing were conceptualized as early as 1973, and were offered for sale beginning in 1994. The term "smartphone", however, did not appear until 1997, when Ericsson described its GS 88 "Penelope" concept as a Smart Phone.

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 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 orBREW. An additional complication is that the capabilities found in newer feature phones exceed those of older phones that had once been promoted as smartphones.

Some manufacturers and providers use the term "superphone" for their high end phones with unusually large screens and other expensive features.

With the advent of devices with larger screens, the term "phablet", a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet, had come into common usage by 2008.

Smartphone

A smartphone, or smart phone, is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than a feature phone. The first smartphones combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA), including email functionality, with a mobile phone. Later models added the functionality of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units to form one multi-use device. Many modern smartphones also include high-resolution touchscreens and web browsers that display standard web pages as well as mobile-optimized sites. High-speed data access is provided by Wi-Fi, mobile broadband,NFC and Bluetooth. In recent years, the rapid development of mobile app markets and of mobile commerce have been drivers of smartphone adoption.

The mobile operating systems (OS) used by modern smartphones include Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Nokia's Symbian, Blackberry Ltd's BlackBerry 10, Samsung's Bada,Microsoft's Windows Phone, Hewlett-Packard's webOS, 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. A few other upcoming operating systems are Mozilla's Firefox OS,Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu Phone, and Tizen.

Worldwide sales of smartphones exceeded those of feature phones in early 2013. As of July 18, 2013, 90 percent of global handset sales are attributed to the purchase of Android and iPhone smartphones.