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smartphone n. A cell phone that includes many of the same features as a personal digital assistant, particularly e-mail, a calendar, and an organizer. Also: smart phone.

Example Citations:
Keep the gadget geek-on-the-go connected with the PalmOne Treo 600 smartphone. Mobile phone, PDA and digital camera all in one, the Treo 600 features a Palm OS organizer with wireless tools such as e-mail and Web browsing.

"The Treo 600 is the perfect blend of phone and PDA for my dad, who always needs to be connected to people and information," says Mike Torres, 27. "Instead of carrying around both a PDA and a cellphone, he only has to carry around one small toy."
—Kelly DiNardo, "Dads, grads drop hints for gadgets," USA Today, May 17, 2004

The Internet is crawling with viruses, and now one worm has even inched its way onto wireless mobile phones. The new Cabir smartphone worm is thought to be the first pest that spreads itself from phone to phone by means of the Blue-tooth wireless technology.
—J. D. Biersdorfer, "Worms Like Wireless Phones, Too," The New York Times, June 24, 2004

Earliest Citation:
A new version of operating system software from Geoworks (NASDAQ/NMS:GWRX) will deliver comprehensive communications capabilities to affordable mobile consumer devices and enable the company to further penetrate this growing market. A universal mailbox facility for processing electronic mail, voice, paging and fax messages, is the centerpiece of the GEOS 3.0 operating system. Particularly well suited for the rapidly growing cellular market and the emerging smartphone category, GEOS 3.0 supports the leading industry standard protocols for wireless communications and delivers a new level of integrated communications functionality to mobile consumer devices.
—"New Geoworks Operating System Software Delivers Communications Power for Mobile Computing," Business Wire, July 10, 1995

Notes:
Here is the earliest use of the word smartphone that I could find for any sense of the term:

Part of the transparent keyboard facility is the ability to deal with the telephone through the "smartphone" option, which makes it possible to answer the phone (using a headset) with the computer.
—Thomas Madron, "Speech systems gaining ground," Computerworld, February 6, 1984

Related Words:
candy bar phone
smart drug
smart dust
smartifact
Swiss Army phone
UMPC
yell phone

Subject Categories:
Computers - Communications
Computers - E-mail
Technology - Cell Phones
Technology - Gadgets and Appliances

Posted on July 29, 2004 at 7:09 AM


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