The smartphone market has changed dramatically in the last few years and keeps changing at a rapid pace with new features being released and existing ones improved. Not too long ago, battery life, QWERTY keypads and the number of megapixels a camera had were among the most important factors considered while purchasing smartphones. Though they would still be important in certain situations, with advancements in software and touch screens, other factors determine how smartphones can be used. This article highlights some things one should consider while buying a smartphone.

Touch screen - there have been major enhancements to the quality of touch screens available. Styluses have become redundant! Phones are now capable of understanding intuitive gestures such as flicking and panning used while viewing pictures. There are two kinds of touch screens - capacitive and resistive. Phones with capacitive screens are usually more expensive and a lot smoother to use.
 
Applications help you get the most out of your phone and are the availability of these is now an important factor to consider while buying a smartphone. The more popular platforms - iPhone OS, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile have thousands of applications available. While as of this moment, the iPhone has the maximum number of applications available, the android developer community is growing at a phenomenal rate. Even though there are applications available for every platform, a wider range to choose from lets you get the application with the user interface that you like best. In addition, open platforms like the Android, let you tweak and customize your phone to make it exactly what you want it to be.
 
Integration with social networks - with the increasing popularity of social networks, the integration with social networks has become more than just a selling point. Especially for those not choosing one of the more popular platforms, support for Facebook and Twitter built in, is an important requirement.

Processor- there was a time when only those consumers buying a new computer would need to hear this word! However,  going by what smartphones are now capable of doing, all those in the market for one would need to pay attention to how powerful a device is. A lot of phones these days support running multiple applications in parallel, or multi-tasking. In addition,  higher definition video playback requires a lot of processing power. A phone is just not a device you can make calls with anymore. A word of caution though, a powerful albeit inefficient processor coupled with inefficient software, will drain the battery faster.
 
This is not the first such article and will definitely not be the last! With new phones with new features being announced everyday, phones can be categorized and compared in many different ways. Factors mentioned above would be more suitable for those buying a smartphone for fun. For business users, things like Microsoft Exchange integration, push email, dual SIM integration, ease of use while working with documents would be important as well.