Usability issues in smart phones Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Usability issues in smart phones - Essay Example It had a variety of applications including a phone book, a calendar and email facilities. Simon was first marketed in 1994 by Bellsouth and was sold at a very high price. Since then the smart phone has come along way. Today smart phones combine all the functions of a GSM mobile phone with a personal computer. They are also known as personal digital assistant (PDA) phones or personal information managers (PIMs). Almost all smart phones feature a built-in-camera, internet access, e-mail capabilities and numerous multimedia functions like streaming audio and video. They also contain phone books, calendars, memos, stopwatches, calendars, alarm clocks, calculators, to-do lists and various other sorts of organizers. Smart phones can have any additional interface like a miniature QWERTY keyboard, a touch screen, D-pad or a track ball. One of the important features of smart phones is that they allow the user to install additional software, even from third party sources. Most smart phones come with their own operating systems which adds to their functionality and makes programming them that much easier. (Dave and Jonathan, n.d) Operating system is responsible for managing other programs or applications. It also manages the internal memory of the device. For a multitasking operating system it has the job of deciding the order in which each program will run. The operating system is the most important software in any smart phone it manages the phones hardware and software resources. The most common operating systems used in smart phones are Linux is one of the most common operating systems used in smart phones. Linux is an example of Open Source development and free software; unlike proprietary operating systems such as Windows, all of its underlying source code is available to the general public for anyone to freely use, modify, and redistribute subject to the appropriate license agreements. And although Linux is harder to manage than