国际英语新闻：Winners, losers in smartphone revolution

LOS ANGEES, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Cell phones have become smarter in the past years with its function almost matching a computer, and in the smartphone revolution, Apple's iPhone is a latecomer but has become a rising star, Android Google phone is getting the upper hand, while Windows Mobile, the early bird, has become a loser.

The battle for the smartphone market seems like a Marathon. Those who started earlier were not necessarily the winner.

According to Wikipedia, in 2001 Microsoft announced its Windows CE Pocket PC OS and the next year it was offered as "Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002."

Microsoft originally defined its Windows Smartphone products as lacking a touchscreen and offering a lower screen resolution compared to its sibling Pocket PC devices.

In early 2002 Handspring released the Palm OS Treo smartphone, utilizing a full keyboard that combined wireless web browsing, email, calendar, and contact organizer with mobile third-party applications that could be downloaded or synced with a computer.

In 2002 RIM released the first BlackBerry which was the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use and had achieved a total customer base of 32 million subscribers by December 2009.

In 2007 Nokia launched the Nokia N95 which integrated a wide range of features into a consumer-oriented smartphone: GPS, a 5- megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, 3G and wi-fi connectivity and TV-out. In the next few years these features became standard on high-end smartphones.