There is no agreement in the industry about what precisely constitutes a "smart" phone, and definitions have changed over time. According to David Wood, EVP at Symbian Ltd., "Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamental ways: how they are built and what they can do." Other definitions put different stresses on these two factors... "With smart phones it's just one evolution in a series of evolutions, so it might be that the actual device at some point ... will become even smaller and we will not call it a phone anymore, but it will be integrated ... the deal here is to make the device as invisible as possible, between you, and what you want to do," says Sacha Wunsch-Vincent at the OECD.

Most devices considered smartphones today use an identifiable operating system, often with the ability to add applications (e.g. for enhanced data processing, connectivity or entertainment) - in contrast to regular phones which only support sandboxed applications (like Java games). These smartphone applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the network operator or by any other third-party software developer, since the operating system is open. In terms of features, most smartphones support full featured email capabilities with the functionality of a complete personal organizer.

Other functionality might include an additional interface such as a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen or a D-pad, a built-in camera, contact management, an accelerometer, built-in navigation hardware and software, the ability to read business documents in a variety of formats such as PDF and Microsoft Office, media software for playing music, browsing photos and viewing video clips, internet browsers or even just secure access to company mail, such as is provided by a BlackBerry. One common feature to the majority of the smartphones is a contact list able to store as many contacts as the available memory permits, in contrast to regular phones that has a limit to the maximum number of contacts that can be stored.

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