Define Your Own Smartphone Needs
All Smartphones offer similar functionality, but they’re not all alike. This book
focuses on Smartphones that utilize the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating
system. These phones have been developed by several different phone manufactures
(like Motorola and Samsung) and each offers a unique design, plus features that
set them apart. Furthermore, the various Smartphones are compatible only with
certain cellular and wireless data service providers (such as AT&TWireless, Verizon
Wireless, Sprint PCS, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.), and each of these service providers
make different features and functions available to the phone at different price points,
based upon the service plan you choose and the contract you sign with the service
provider.
Typically, you’ll need to make a one or two year commitment with a service
provider, although you can change service plans during that time as long as
you stay with that provider. Choosing the best wireless voice and data service
provider is covered in Chapter 2.
Many Technologies Offer Similar Functionality
When you go to any cellular phone store, kiosk at the mall, or a consumer electronics
store (like Best Buy, Circuit City or Radio Shack), you’ll see an assortment of
Smartphones available. As you begin to shop around, you’ll quickly discover
several distinct categories of Smartphones, each of which utilizes a different
operating system.
If you’re familiar with desktop computers, you probably know that PC-based
desktop computers often operate using Microsoft Windows, while computers
manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc., for example, operate using a totally
different operating system. PC-based computers and Apple computers can be
used to handle virtually all of the same computing applications, but the look of the
screens, the user interfaces, and the commands used to make things happen are
somewhat different.
This same concept holds true with Smartphones, because there are many
different companies manufacturing Smartphones that use different operating
systems. They all pretty much run the same types of applications, only they handle
them differently. The following is a rundown of the types of Smartphones available
that run under the various operating systems.
Windows Mobile Smartphones
Windows Mobile Smartphones are sleekly shaped devices designed primarily for
one-handed use that offer voice and data communication from the palm of your
hand. It’s these devices that this book primarily focuses on. Smartphones that
run using the Windows Mobile operating system (http://www.microsoft.com/
windowsmobile) offer a strong similarity to desktop computers running Windows
XP, for example, so you’ll find many of the commands and icons to be similar.
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