Android is an operating system developed for mobile smartphones by a startup company that was bought by Google and is associated with the Open Handset Alliance. It is based on Linux of which additional smartphone operating systems are being developed.
Many of the CPUs actually contain a system on a chip which includes peripheral functions as well as regular processing. Companies such as Apple use processors based on the ARM architecture which is a reduced instruction set.
The data storage capacities range from 256MB to 64GB in the case of the Apple iPhone 4S. The RAM capacity ranges from 64MB to 1GB.
The applications that run on the mobile phones extend across many areas. There are business apps that track the stock market, do scheduling, pay bills and track gas mileage. News apps get weather information and breaking news. Education apps help with assignments and exams. The also include atlases and dictionaries. Travel apps help with booking hotel rooms, flights and translation. There are apps for other areas such as entertainment, games, sports and music. Many different types of apps can be found online through app stores such as the Apple App Store.
Smartphones allow access to market information in ways not possible in the past. It is possible to get information from the internet that is closer in time at a particular place. For example, it is possible to compare prices online while inside a store. In addition, people can check ratings of the store with its competitors.
One application of marketing to smartphone users includes targeting with local ads based on GPS position.
Google’s Android operating system has risen the most in market share between 2009 and 2011 while Symbian has declined. “There has been an explosion in the number of devices that carry Android OS. From Q2 of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, Android's worldwide market share rose 850% from 1.8% to 17.2%. On 15 November 2011, Android reached 52.5% of the global smartphone market share.” Apple’s iPhone, however, has the highest customer loyalty and satisfaction.
| Operating Systems | Percent Market Share | |
|---|---|---|
| Android (Google) | 43% | |
| Symbian (Nokia) | 22% | |
| Apple (iOS) | 18% | |
| RIM (Blackberry) | 12% | |
| Bada (Samsung) | 2% | |
| Microsoft | 2% | |
| Other | 1% |
Prices for smartphones themselves vary greatly from nearly free to hundreds of dollars depending on the signup plan. The signup plans, however, usually range from $30.00 per month to hundreds of dollars per month.
Smartphones allow access to web services that approaches that of regular computers such as desktops and laptops. Uploads and downloads of files and data are possible through 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks and smartphones are increasingly performing tasks that are normally done on regular computers.
Some of the cloud services accessible to smartphones include cloud storage of backup data, photos, music files and videos. App stores represent one aspect of the smartphone to cloud connection especially when the app allows access to a web service on the smartphone.
The trend for Linux based platforms is increasing as well as for touch screen phones.
One of the things that has to be taken into account in building websites for mobile phones is the screen size of the phone. The screen sizes can vary anywhere from 320 x 480 down to 128 x 160. Smartphones usually have a larger screen size.
The limitations of the browser also has to be taken into account when developing a website for mobile phones. Many of then do not support flash.
The markup language also has to be considered. Wireless Markup Language or WML is a markup language designed for mobile phones. XHTML is preferred over regular HTML since it is more strict with formatting content. The XHTML should be validated to avoid problems with mobile phone browsers.
In some cases, it might be better to develop a website exclusively for mobile phones. The website could also have the domain extension.mobi or it could use a subdomain like mobile.domainname.com.
It is a good idea to keep things to a minimum such as text, buttons and tables. The navigation on the screen should also be kept to a minimum. Too many features can also slow down the device.
Visitors can be redirected to the mobile website if browser detection is used to determine if they are using a mobile phone.
Emulators can be used to test the website if access to a mobile phone is not possible.
It is also possible to visit http://www.google.com/gwt/n and view a regular website as with a mobile phone.
There are many features that have become common to many different smartphones. These include the accelerometer which measures the change in orientation of the device which is used in determining whether portrait or landscape should be used with the camera. Audio features allow for sound recording and playing music while some phones can also record video.