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Thinking about what smartphones industry will bring in the following years is a question in a lot of smartphone users' minds. A lot of technologies which have been in the development stage for years are transferred now from research labs to factories, and straight to the next mobile phones generations. Rather than asking "what if?" and "what could be?" questions, we'd better take a look at the real facts in this industry. Smartphones of 2010's years will be for sure much better than the ones available today. It is the natural way of things, and the normal way of progress. There are three important key trends which will be implemented in smartphones and they will bring fundamental changes in our way of using this devices and in the industry itself: digitization of all content, broadband everywhere and pocket computing. These trends already changed a lot the mobile phone production and they will drive smartphones evolution in certain directions.

There are three components in the future smartphones solution: mobile hardware, mobile OS and Web-based ecosystem, according to Motorola's Stark. This new ecosystem will integrate a large variety of applications and services, which will come for a wide range of providers, small and big, but there will be some key features which will guide all this development: contacts, calendar, payment, identity, content management and access and location services.

I think that the biggest opportunity is brought by broadband Internet connectivity, which becomes more and more available no matter the location. Next generation of wireless network is on its way, and Verizon, Wireless and Sprint already have 3G coverage running across a large part of the United States. AT&T and T-Mobile are slowly catching up and these 3G connections will evolve to 3.5G in time, and this means higher downloading and uploading speeds, and the trends show a fast evolution towards 4G. More than other devices, smartphones are using this 3G connectivity. They will need better processing power in order to use faster networks. So the processor industry is also integraded in this development process, and there is a directly link between smartphones evolution and microprocessors progress.



Another important link is made between what people want to access and the means they have for doing this. More and more nowadays, people want to access online accounts, and get information in real-time, they like to have information at a one-click distance. This brings browsers' development in our attention, and it is obvious that the ubiquitous access to high-speed networks requires a good infrastructure, and this means very good and adaptable browsers. I think that in few years time, all the Internet experience on PC's will be available in the mobile space too, and this is what Sebastian Nystrom affirmed too, and he is the director of technology strategy at Nokia. I think he knows better than me.



A lot of information will be brought on our smartphones' screens by widgets, which are very specialized applications, and they facilitate you access to the exact information you need. Mobility is the new aspect of Internet. Of course, you can have huge browsing speeds on your laptops also, but you can't use it while walking on the street or driving. Internet applications will become more and more tied to mobility, and the applications which offer services like GPS location and navigation or social networking will be present in all smartphones, and they will enrich these smart devices.

Living in an informational society, based on communication, connectivity and digital media brings another important aspect into our attention: it won't be anymore about the individual entertainment you can get, you with your smartphone, but it will be about how you can connect your online life with the real one, and in the same time with other people's lives. Having a device which allows you to be permanently connected rather than allowing you to play entertainment has a more profound impact on the way we live our lives than any other consumer electronics devices in humanity's history. We shouldn't neglect the entertainment applications, which bring music and video at your hands, but the memory capacity is strongly linked to this aspect. This means that a development in the multimedia applications industry will also bring an important development in the memory field (and memory can be RAM or storage solutions). Storage capacity will have to increase a lot, because flexibility and ease of access of the stored information are important must aspects in smartphone industry.

Another important aspect in smartphones development process is about targeting. All this industry will suffer a change from general to specific, and all products will be targeted on different user segments. There are a lot of preferences in consumers' ocean, and a simple example would be that some users like QWERTY keyboards, other like virtual keyboards, and using a stylus, others like touchscreens. We already have three categories of smartphones, and just think about this: there are thousands of combinations between these variables. This means thousands of products, each targeted on specific preferences and needs. It is very important on how attractive a particular feature is for customers and this is because people have different priorities systems. "There won't be any Swiss Army Knife device. You'll have more targeted solutions", says Silviu Moraru, manager of technology and competitive intelligence for Samsung.

Bluetooth is integrated already in almost every smartphone. In few years time, I think that Bluetooth will move towards better connectivity and faster data transfers. Wi-Fi should cover most of the local connections, and multiple radio technologies should be on board for smartphones.



An important development direction is the interaction with the user, and sensor-based smartphones. Motion sensors, accelerometers and gesture reading devices should improve a lot this interaction, and combined with the connectivity widespread, it should create a new set of opportunities for consumers. Unfortunately, an aspect which won't mean a major leap in smartphones development is battery life.

Even if future smartphones won't be able to do science fiction things, this sector is moving forward rapidly and in our advantage.