A smart phone is a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities beyond a typical mobile phone, often with PC-like functionality. There is no industry standard definition of a smart phone. For some, a smart phone is a phone that runs complete operating system software providing a standardized interface and platform for application developers. For others, a smart phone is simply a phone with advanced features like e-mail and Internet capabilities, and/or a full keyboard.
A personal digital assistant (PDA) is a hand-held computer also known as small or palmtop computers. Newer PDAs also have both color screens and audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as mobile phones. Many PDAs can access the internet and the busy worker can only use this pda to online..
THIS IS SOME HISTORY ABOUT SMART PHONE.
The first smart phone was called SIMON designed by IBM in 1992 and shown as a concept product that year at codex, the computer industry trade show held in Last Vegas. It was released to the public in 1993. Besides being a mobile phone, it also contained a calendar, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, send and receive fax, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger. Text was entered with a unique on-screen "predictive" keyboard. By today's standards, the Simon would be a fairly low-end smart phone.
The sony Erickson R380 was sold as a 'smart phone' but could not run native third-party applications. Although the NOKIA 9210 was arguably the first true smart phone with an open operating system, Nokia continued to refer to it as a Communicator.
In 2001 RIM released the first BLACK BERRY which was the first smart phone optimized for wireless email use and has achieved a total customer base of 8 million subscribers by June 2007, of which three quarters are in North America.
PDA'S HISTORY.
The first PDA is considered to be the CASIO PF-3000 released in May 1983. GO CORP. was also pioneering in the field. The term was first used on 7 January 1992 in Last Vegas, Nevada, referring to the apple newton. PDAs are sometimes referred to as "Palms", "Palm Pilot", or "Palm Tops".