(NAPSA)—More people are carrying smartphones than ever before. Whether you are a businessperson, a stay-at-home mom, a student or a retiree, your smart- phone can make yourlife easier and more entertaining. A mobile phoneis considered a smartphoneif it has a calendar or personal organizer and full-feature e-mail capabilities along with other added functionality such as a full keyboard or media software. Applications are readily available that are designed to customize your smartphone to fit your lifestyle. Regardless of the service provider or phone brand, consumers can buy and download these applications to help make them more productive or provide fun ways to pass thetime. In 2007, smartphones accounted for a relatively small percentage of the global mobile phone marketplace. However, the market for these devices is expanding rapidly. According to Handango, the largest provider of smartphone applications, a growing number of consumers use their smartphones for many activities beyond making phone calls. For example, the most popular categories of applications sold on Handango’s Web site (www.han dango.com) are business and productivity followed by entertainment, travel and fitness. For business. Conducting business on the road can be a challenge. Today’s mobile applications allow you to have increased functionality on the go, providing the ability to use your smartphone as if it were your personal computer. Business applications allow you to read and edit spreadsheets and presentations, check your spelling in e-mails, or automatically read your calendar and set your phone to silent or vibrate mode when in meetings. For entertainment. Most smartphones on the market today Applications are the key to leveraging the power of your smartphone. come with a small library of common games. However, thousands of additional applications are available to purchase and download for entertainment via your phone. For example, mobile applications are available that allow you to watch television on your smartphone, including wellknown channels such as ABC News Now and Fox Sports, along with specialized outlets such as CSPAN, ESPN and TLC. For travel. Travelers to a new destination need information about where they are and howto find what they need. Available travel applications for your smartphone include maps, directions with turnby-turn GPS navigation, and even the locations of nearby gas stations with the lowest prices. For health and wellness. Many wellness applications are now available for your smartphone that help you to stay fit while on the go. These include food databases with nearly 10,000 items preloaded with nutrition information, listings for hundreds of popular restaurants and fast-food chains, customizable food and exer- cise databases, charts and graph- ing tools for monitoring yourfit- ness program, body measurements and blood pressure, as well as a daily journal for personal notes.
