Smartphone 101 (Download This‪)‬

The tech world has been abuzz over the last several months (really years) with smartphones. There are myriad smartphones out there, but really only three that are vying for the market on the business front: Mountain View, California-based Google Inc.'s Android [R]; Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.'s iPhone [R]; and Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry [R]. There are other phones that only offer texting and video functionality, but they are used predominantly by the younger crowd and so those will not be profiled here. Also not profiled here will be the latest Palm [R] devices, because they have so little market share. There are obvious tie-ins to the mortgage business, as many applications (apps) are being created or moved onto smartphone platforms. How do you make sense of it all?