Smartphones can do anything! Almost

If a PDA and a mobile phone met, fell in love and went forth to multiply, the result of their union would be a smartphone.

For the uninitiated, the smartphone is the perfect combination of PDA and mobile phone. These new phones will make your modest mobile look like one of the more rudimentary hunting tools used by Neolithic cavemen.

What do smartphones do? The answer is just about everything short of the foxtrot. Features can include access to the Internet and e-mail, a built-in video camera, games, a video and music player.

In fact, the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association conference held in Atlanta, Georgia, in March had a lengthy discussion on how television facilities could be added to smartphones.

One of the more popular models is the Nokia 6600, relatively cheap at around Rs 19,500, which has a video recorder, and on which you can conduct conferences and check e-mail.

Then there's the ultra-new Sony Ericsson P910, which is selling especially well despite its whopping Rs 38,500 price tag.

This comes with BlueTooth -- technology that allows electronic equipment to make connections without wires -- which means that you will be able to synchronise all the data on your phone with your PC.

The P910 can also not only record images but also edit them. Then there's the MP3 player, a mighty force when combined with the 32MB memory stick. In case this isn't enough, the P910's Symbian Operating System means that you can download and run any program you need that the system does not come with.

Then of course there's latest Blackberry, the 7100v, which, along with the usual e-mail, BlueTooth and Microsoft Office attachments, also comes with a keyboard, a 35,000-word dictionary and a language processing system which works out what you're typing. This is better and much less frustrating than the T9 predictive mode of laborious texting most present-day mobiles use.

Given the popularity of the PalmOne (formerly Handspring) Treo series in India, (the 7100v is very similar in form to the Treo 600), and the competitive price of $200 (around Rs 9,200, whereas the Treo 600 is priced at a cool Rs 42,000), the 7100v should be popular if all goes well with the Blackberry launch planned here later this year.

Most smartphones available here cost anywhere between Rs 25,000 to Rs 45,000 and, inevitably, they are bought by "top executives or rich businessmen". Also, the phones are more expensive here because of distributors' margins. -- Business Standard

A Palm Treo 600 smartphone. Photo: Stephen Chernin/Getty Images

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