10 Things You Should Know About Smart Phones

From the Apple iPhones global appeal to Palms new marketing focus, vendors and mobile operators alike are pushing smart phones toward wider adoption. For enterprises, e-mail may still be the smart phones killer application, but the ways these devices c

GPS

GPS receivers are becoming more common in smart phones, with HTC, Research in Motion and other manufacturers now offering the feature. But GPS isnt just for getting you from point A to point B; various operators offer per-subscriber location/

Open Access

Open is the new pink when it comes to smart phones, as vendors and carriers are shoving each other aside to announce open initiatives – to free the mobile operating system, the mobile network and mobile applications. But, as appeal

Battery Life

A batterys mAh rating will give only a loose indication of standby and talk-time battery life. Remember, all the radios (cell, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), the color screen and the speakerphone will drag down effective life. By default, turn o

Wi-Fi

Look for new Wi-Fi chips (like Atheros AR6002 family) to further reduce power consumption by the Wi-Fi radio-both when in use and in standby mode. In return, smart-phone battery life should get a nice boost.

Unlicensed Mobile Access

Earlier in 2007, T-Mobile launched its Hotspot@Home service, allowing customers to make VOIP (voice over IP) calls using their cell handsets. However, only a couple of Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones worked with the system. By Se

Security

There are a lot of security pain points when it comes to smart phones, and, odds are, most are currently unaddressed on your organizations smart-phone platform. Things to look for (from your device or a third-party solution) include device

Multimedia

To get maximum adoption and uptake, smart phones need to balance business use with personal use. The corporate smart phone loses some usefulness if a worker leaves it in a desk every night and takes his or her iPhone home.

Applications

E-mail will likely remain the primary application for most smart-phone usage, so message delivery will remain a core criterion of the purchase decision. But with improving connectivity options, a smart phone has so much more potential.

Camera

That integrated camera is not just for drunken bar shots anymore. Newer devices can do impromptu video, as well, which could be useful for rich media purposes or for unified communications. And some devices (including Motorolas MC35) can us

Femtocells

By the end of 2008, we should start seeing femtocell trials from the more adventurous operators, finally making it possible to improve the cell coverage in your house or office with tiny, localized, Internet-connected cells. It remains t

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