It all started with the personal digital assistant (PDA) and, from there, the combination of the PDA and phone was just the next logical step. With the proliferation of devices, such as cameras and mp3 players, smartphones got even smarter and incorporate all of our favorite gadgets in one neat contraption.

The demand for these smartphones has outpaced the rest of the mobile phone market for several years. According to a study by ComScore, over 45.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones in 2010 out of 234 million total subscribers.

2010 saw the rapid rise of the Google Android (News - Alert) operating system from 4 percent of new deployments in 2009 to 33 percent at the beginning of 2011 making it share the top position with the since long dominating Symbian (News - Alert) OS. The smaller rivals include US popular Blackberry OS, the trendsetting iOS, Samsung's recently introduced bada, HP's heir of Palm Pilot webOS and the Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Phone OS seeing a possible revival through an alliance with Nokia.

With all of these devices, one thing is for certain: carriers are looking for ways to make their all-in-one devices more marketable to a broader audience.

According to AllThingsD’s Ina Fried, France Telecom wants to see more people use more smartphones. Basically, make them more “mom-and-pop friendly” (as her article title suggests.)

France Telecom, as Ina reports, is launching a “get started with a smartphone service” so that everyone feels comfortable obtaining and using a smartphone.

“We want to democratize the smartphone,” said Olaf Swantee, senior executive vice president for France Telecom’s Orange unit in the report.

It makes sense, given all the analysts’ research on the matter, all of which point to tremendous smartphone growth.

Juniper Research had predicted in 2009 that smartphones will account for 23 percent of all new handsets sold per annum by 2013. Driving interest in smartphones will be the proliferation of online stores selling specialized applications that will make these devices better suited to individual users' needs.

"The strong growth in popularity for smartphones is attributed to numerous trends," said Andrew Kitson, analyst for Juniper Research, Hampshire, Britain at the time of the report. "Firstly, more new phones coming onto the market are smartphones because consumers want and need multimedia devices that can properly address their Internet-centric and social networking needs."

The numbers are there, so how are carriers putting themselves out there to appeal to a wider audience?

“Sprint (News - Alert), for example, has focused on a set of Sprint ID packs that allow Android newbies to get up and running with a collection of apps and widgets that match their interests. The concept was first introduced at the CTIA show in 2010 with partners such as Disney, MTV and ESPN (News - Alert),” writes Ina Fried.

It all comes down to how to make it fit for everyone. Since the Web is such an important part of our society, mobile phones that are Internet-ready are simply becoming a sort of necessity.

“Mobile Internet is quickly becoming intrinsic in many people’s life,” said France Telecom Executive Vice President Anne Bouverot. “That drives quite a similar demand (worldwide).”

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