First, what exactly is a smartphone? Well, just trying to define a smartphone is a bit of a challenge, as I found out while searching the web. Wikipedia’s definition of a smartphone is:
“…a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality.”
They also add “There is no industry standard definition of a smartphone. For some, a smartphone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smartphone is simply a phone with advanced features.”

For my purposes I’ll choose the definition of a smartphone being a mobile phone with advanced capabilities and an Operating System.

The Motorola A1200 MING Cell Phone runs Linux and has PDA capabilities, so it definitely can be termed a smartphone. For input it has a touch screen phone and a stylus, along with a virtual keyboard. It also has an 312MHz Intel XScale processor, 64MB ROM and 64MB RAM, FM Radio, 2 Megapixel camera and Bluetooth. A microSD slot supports cards up to 2GB.

This is not bad for a phone released over two years ago. Unfortunately it wasn’t picked up by any U.S. carriers, as it may have done well. It is one of the coolest looking phones I’ve seen.

Posted on April 15th, 2008 by mervyn