What is a smart phone?

I am in charge of two modules of which a major component is the marketing simulation game SIMBrand. The game is designed to reflect the real life business world and the students are supposed to play the role of a top management team responsible for taking marketing decisions for a smart phone company.

Today one of my students asked me some very interesting questions.

"I wanted to ask what 'smartphone' refers to in the game?
Is it the style of phone or features?
How do we make a phone smart or normal?"

I was surprised but apparently there is no standard definition of the term "smartphone" across the industry and there is no clear differentiation between a "normal" and a "smart phone".

So here is my attempt to distinguish between the two types of mobile phones. The term smartphone refers to the new breed of mobile phones. Besides allowing you to make and receive calls, SMS, MMS, they have multiple features including the ability to take/ view photographs and video, record/ listen to music files, send and receive e-mail, surf the net, and even GPS navigation. Most of the modern smart phones now have super bright high resolution touch screens, high speed internet access, constant access to social media sites, and the ability to download and run numerous apps. and games.

They are differentiated from the "normal" mobile phones which allows you to only make and take calls, SMS, maybe play some really simple games like the hugely popular Snake and irritate people with annoying ring tones.

According to Wikipedia, the first smartphone was the IBM Simon which was first revealed in 1992.

See the Wikipedia Smart Phone page for more information