Introducing the SmartPhone

The SmartPhone is essentially a cell phone that runs the Pocket PC operating system. To facilitate the small form factor of a cellular telephone, the SmartPhone deviates from a standard Pocket PC device in two important ways:

• The screen size for the SmartPhone is smaller than those found on standard Pocket PC devices. The SmartPhone screen resolution is 176 x 220, compared with 240 x 320 for the standard Pocket PC form factor.

• The SmartPhone screen is not touch-sensitive. This radically changes the paradigm by which users enter information to applications. Users interact with applications by pressing physical buttons on the phone.

These two differences make developing for SmartPhones a different endeavor from developing for a Pocket PC or a Windows CE device. The most obvious difference is the smaller screen size, which requires developers to think about screen real estate more carefully . But the lack of a touch-sensitive screen and keyboard means that a whole swath of user interface objects, including the venerable button, stop making sense.

This chapter explores how to develop for the SmartPhone by using the .NET Compact Framework while working around the SmartPhone's inherent limitations.