The Difference Between a Smartphone and PDA
July 27th, 2010Technological advancements make common terminology such as mobile phone, smartphone and China mobile PDA difficult to decipher as each type of device changes constantly and features traditionally belonging to one type of device are now found on others. Here we will explore the popular category of mobile communication devices, the similarities and differences between some of the popular products.
What Is a Smartphone?
A smartphone is considered to be the combination of the traditional PDA and cellular phone, with a bigger focus on the cellular phone part. These handheld devices integrates mobile phone capabilities with the more common features of a handheld computer or PDA. Smartphones allow users to store information, e-mail, install programs, along with using a mobile phone in one device. A smartphone’s features is usually more oriented towards mobile phone options than the PDA-like features. There is no industry standard for what defines a smartphone, so any mobile phone device that has more than basic cellphone capabilities can actually be filed under the smartphone category of devices.
What Is a PDA Phone?
It’s definitely a lack of standardization that makes the category of cell phone devices so confusing to the consumer. As technology changes, so do the functions that these different devices perform. Years ago, many people differentiated PDA and smartphone simply by looking for touch-screen capabilities. If it had a touch screen, it was a PDA, if it didn’t, it was a smartphone. The Sony Ericsson Smartphone, for example, offers users both a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. Despite the fact that the manufacturer calls this product a smartphone, the generic term for a PDA oriented device with cellular phone capabilities is called a PDA phone.
What’s The Differences?
In summing up the differences between these common mobile communications devices you could say that a PDA mobile phone is more PDA than phone and a smartphone is more phone than PDA. And, of course, a cellular phone is more phone than anything else.
