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Smartphones are great. These devices effectively combine the personal information management and processing power of a PDA with the cellular voice and data capabilities of cell phone.

As the major smartphone platform providers and manufacturers know, however, it's awfully hard to take all those features and bundle them into a package that is affordable to the majority of consumers—most smartphones and high-end mobile phones go for several hundred dollars.

Mobile operators would like to see cheaper advanced phones to up their data driven revenues: the more advanced the handset the more a carrier earns from a subscriber. For example, last year U.K. operator Orange reported palmOne's Treo delivered twice the Average Revenue Per User than the other phones it supports.

Yes, Danger's hiptop2 / T-Mobile Sidekick II can go for as little as nothing with a service plan. But the wireless carrier must subsidize all of the hip handset's $200 price tag.

Palm
PalmSource's high-end and still missing in action Cobalt platform is supposed to take care of this on the Palm side. When it was introduced a year ago, the idea was for Cobalt to take over the high-end while the current operating system, Garnet (Palm OS 5.4), would move to the low-end.

Cobalt devices took an important step twoards reality at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France this week with the unveiling of two Cobalt smartphone reference designs from Texas Instruments.

Windows Mobile
Also at 3GSM 20905, Microsoft announced its plan to bring its smartphone platform, Windows Mobile, to lower cost handsets. It is partnering with Flextronics on Peadbody (see image), a GSM/GPRS reference design for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

Peadbody is designed to bring low-cost smartphones to market quickly and at high volumes. As a Windows Mobile-based device, the Peabody Original Design Manufacture platform offers OEMs more than 18,000 applications for product line customization.

Microsoft said Flextronics extensive ODM development experience makes it an excellent strategic partner for the creation of a complete mobile phone platform.

The software giant's VP of Mobile and Embedded Devices Suzan DelBene asserts, "Flextronics' record of delivering highly integrated mobile phone platforms to markets around the world gives our joint OEM partners a strong go-to-market ally for smart devices. Our joint strengths allow us to deliver innovative and customizable device solutions based on Windows Mobile platform that can be deployed quickly at competitive price points."

Symbian
Symbian upgraded its eponymous OS to version 9.0 recently to help manufacturers churn out smartphones more quickly and cheaply—at the same time as making them less expensive, smaller, and more powerful for consumers, as well as better supporters of revenue-generating services, content, and applications for wireless carriers.

A short whle later Nokia unveiled its latest smartphone interface, Series 60 3rd Edition, at 3GSM 2005. Series 60 is hands down the most commonly interface for the Symbian OS, itself by far the most popular smartphone platform.

New features focus on enhanced multimedia and enterprise functionality (e.g. a new security framework and improved calendar, synchronization, and device management), sustainable application business support, modern customization enablers, and an improved platform architecture and framework.

Of course, Nokia shares Symbian's goal for the quicker development of cheaper handsets and more affordable handsets.

Intregrate & They'll Come
JupiterResearch recently reported a growing market for devices like smartphones that combine functions. In fact, the majority of consumers, 62 percent, would accept compromised functionality in order to obtain a single integrated device and avoid carrying multiple gadgets.

As a result, smartphones should grow at a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent through 2009, accounting for 9.3 percent at that time. This is up from 3.7 percent last year. While those are impressive numbers, they indicate that smartphones will not replace dedicated devices such as standard cell phones, media players, cameras, or gaming handhelds.

The research firm's VP & research director Michael Gartenberg commented, "Although our research indicates that consumers will carry up to three devices, they still prefer to carry a single integrated device to provide mobile functions."

Nearly three quarters of consumers view telephony as the most important feature on a mobile device.

Gartenberg added, "The key is understanding what features are important to consumers in a given context and delivering them while being careful not compromise on the key mobile feature, telephony."

JupiterResearch and this Web site are owned by the same company, Jupitermedia.