Jargon-busting mobile industry's buzzwords

Mobile devices may have placed an amazing array of research in the palms of our hands, however they've as well given us a bamboozling array of buzzwords and acronyms.

To help avoid confusion as the cell phone industry meets for its annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, CNN has compiled a handy jargon buster.

Android: An operating system created for mobile devices by a consortium of tech firms led by Google. Different versions of Android are typically named afterwards sugary treats, namely Gingerbread, Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich.

AMOLED: Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode. This is the research behind ultra-thin display screens used on many smartphones. These use on-off switching to consume less power than previous "passive matrix OLED" displays.

Cloud computing: The offloading of data storage or processing to the internet or a shared network. Cloud research allows phones to outsource their functions, provided there's a good Wi-Fi connection.

4G: Fourth generation. A loose term covering the wireless network research that will power the then and there generation of mobile phones. Already deployed in parts of Europe it promises data speeds of 300Mbps -- 20 times faster than existing 3G networks.

NFC: Nearly field communication: Innovation that allows smartphones to communicate with other nearby devices. It allows simple data transfer between mobiles. It can as well be used in contactless payment systems, allowing mobiles to behave like debit cards.

Padphones: Is it a pad? Is it a phone? It's both! These tablet devices feature a phone docking station, allowing a phone's functions to be upgraded into a tablet environment.

Quad core: Refers to the phone's capacity for crunching data. The higher the number of processing cores, the faster the phone. The quad cores unveiled in Barcelona should, in theory, be the fastest to date, capable of simultaneously running several complex apps. This will, nevertheless, depend on whether they work so then with phone operating systems.

SMS: Short message system -- or text messaging. The original and, some say, the best mobile phone app. This cheap, widely-available, stripped-down communication system refuses to die in spite of technology advances.

Symbian: Mobile phone operating system maintained by innovation firm Accenture. Symbian was favored nearly exclusively by Nokia, however Nokia is now switching to a mobile version of Microsoft's Windows 7.

3G: Third generation. The innovation currently being used by many mobile systems. These support data transfer rates that allow users to surf the internet and watch videos.

VAS: Value-added service. Mostly refers to any device function beyond its core purpose. Once upon a time, this meant any functionality above phone calls and text messages, nevertheless user-expectations are somewhat higher these days.