Smartphones of Note

While advances in general PDA design were either slow in coming, Palm OS 5 and integrated wireless, or didn't pay immediate dividends in terms of performance, Pocket PCs with Intel's XScale processor, the smartphone or PDA/phone hybrid came into its own in this past year.

Exciting new products, such as Handspring's Treo Communicator, first released earlier in the year, demonstrated the potential of these devices, while by the end of the year Samsung and Kyocera upgraded a couple of the earliest PDA/Phone hybrids with models that promise to set the standard for excellence in the coming year.

Old standbys, such as Nokia's Communicator, got even more powerful, while T-Mobile's Sidekick proved that the smartphone wasn't just meant for the business or high-end user. Microsoft left no stone unturned by attacking the smartphone from the PDA first/phone second side with its Pocket PC Phone Edition operating system and mobile phone first/PDA second side with its new Windows Powered Smartphone OS.

In part one of this article we cover the latest in Palm OS smartphones, while part II talks about what's been happening with Microsoft-based smartphones, Symbian (Nokia & Sony Ericsson), BlackBerry and T-Mobile's Sidekick.