what is the difference between a handheld computer,PDA and smart phone?

these products is increasingly similar in functions, and I am realy confused by the difference. can anybody help me get out of the maze?

By the way, I think, the smart phone will someday replace PDA and handheld computer, do u think so?

As the previous poster stated, "convergence" is the word!

Minor correction: not all smartphones run on Symbian. Windows Mobile, Palm and Linux all have smartphone platforms.

In layman's, overly simplistic terms, a smartphone is a PDA with phone capabilities. However, I'd say in reality, a smartphone is a phone with some PDA (read:organizational) abilities.

Case in point is the Treo. Beautiful product, meant to have the best of Palm computing and the ability to stay connected in more ways than one. Now, granted, some people would say that it is not enough phone OR PDA, but hey... to each his own.

I, for one, am still a hold out. I use a T5 and keep my phone separate. Like you say, I think smartphones will be the norm in the near future. At present the difference between a PDA and a Smart phone is Smart phone has symbian operating system and PDAs generally have Microsoft operaing systems.

Also Smart phone has capability to connect to a cellular network, which PDA doesn't have.

I don't thnk Smart phones will oneday replace PDAs. But they will be merged in to one. A Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) is the same as handheld computer. A PDA organizes a person's daily routine with contact listings, calendar, To-Do lists, and notes. New PDAs also include ability to connect to the Internet for Web surfing, and e-mail, as well as Bluetooth, mp3, voice recording, and even ability to watch TV and DVDs through special software.

A smartphone combines the features of a mobile phone with the feature of a PDA. I prefer PDA from Palm, and their Treo smartphone has been a huge success due to its compact, yet powerful, and easy-to-use features:

http://www.palm.com/us/products/smartpho...

As for whether smartphones will replace PDAs, you are probably right, as people look for convergence on a variety of products into a single product. Handheld computers and PDAs are the same but smartphone is a type of phone that have PDA functions.

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