In my earlier blog I wrote about the recent hot trends that make a smart phone even smarter. There are enough things out there that still make your smartest phone a dumbo. Here is my take on things that still need major attention from the Apples and Samsungs of the world. Hope somebody is listening.

1. Battery Life

If there is one thing that anybody who has ever used a smart phone would want to improve in a smart phone is its battery life. There are hardly any smart phones that can last more than a fair usage of a business day. Add wifi or 3G/4G, GPS, Bluetooth, multimedia and a fully charged phone can dry up within hrs. It isn’t that the muscle power in the battery has not improved. The mAh specification of the battery (an indication of how much fuel a Li-ion battery carries) has steadily increased over a period of time. Take Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series for example. The mAh rating has increased from 1650 for S2, to 2100 for S3 and finally 2600 mAh for S4. Ideally S4 should long 1.6 times long. However, the phones themselves have become mightier and so has their consumption. The quad-core or even eight core processors, Large HD displays and all those frills like NFC come at a cost of battery life. Every now and then I do experience the frustration of my cell phone breathing its last right in the mid of an important phone call. That’s when I miss my good old Nokia brick so much.

2. Interoperability

I wish there was more standardization. I wish there was more inter-operability. I wish all accessories of one phone would work with others. I wish the Bose Docking station for the iPhone would work with the Android Phone. I wish there was just one universal charger pin for all cell phones. Unfortunately that’s not really the case. Off course there are business reasons the manufacturers for doing so. Accessories is a big revenue stream. A more proprietary accessory is likely to lock down customers. All those Docking Stations, Chargers, car accessories made for iPhone are a major exit barrier for anybody who has invested in those accessories and looking to buy an Android phone. Apple is known for its “Closed Ecosystem”. It goes beyond chargers, docking stations and accessories. Need to print from your phone? Make sure the Printer is AirPrint compatible. Want to stream music? Get an AirPlay compatible player (aka Apple TV). Things work beautifully so long as all your devices are from the Apple eco system. “Land and Expand” strategy at its best. Android is relatively better when it comes to openness. It supports open standards like DLNA, UPnP for Media Streaming, NFC for device-to-device communication, Qi for wireless charging and so on. Apple leaves far more things to be desired when it comes to interoperability. And you know what? It’s by choice.

3. Call Quality

It has been a major debate whether a smart phone has any role to play with the call quality. The manufacturers usually blame it on the service providers for the poor call quality. While in most of the cases it might be true, the reality is that the phone itself has a lot to influence call quality. J D Power published a study a while back to measure the Cellular Call Quality measured as Problems Per 100 (PP100) calls. The study discovered that the call quality has declined over last one decade and also that the PP100 score was higher for Smart Phones than for the normal phones. A very simple and logical reason for this difference in performance is that Smart Phones pack just so much into a little slim and sleek device that there is no room to “optimize” the phone for better call quality. I can’t agree more.

4. Fragility

Remember the first Nokia Ad - “Made for India”?


The Ad beautifully emphasized the ruggedness of the Nokia phones. I don’t intend to hang the phone outside the truck. But I do want the phone to survive occasional drops, occasional exposure to water, scratches and a bit rough use. My phone already has a cracked back cover. It looks so ugly. Smart phones are known for their fragility. They cant beat those old Nokia phones for sure. However, this is an area where a lot of improvement is expected to happen. Sony already claims its Xperia Z is water proof. The screens made out of Sapphire were demoed in Consumer Electronics Show this yr. The material is expected to make the mobile screens Concrete proof. See for yourself

5. Far Away from True Office Productivity

No matter how smart the phones become, they are still far away from replacing your bulky old school laptop. You may buy highly rated, fancy Office Apps from app stores. But nothing can replace the Office Suite on a laptop. Its not only about Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Even writing an important longish email is bit cumbersome on a phone. I still prefer a laptop for such a use case.  But I would love to use just one device that does it all. I am not sure if it is even possible ever. May be I am asking too much.

I can live without the last one. But the phones of the future better address these fundamental rights of a cell phone users. NFCs, Wire Less Chargins and Finger Hovers can wait.

Posted by Amol Mategaonkar
22nd April 2013
Originally Posted at http://digitalden.tumblr.com/

The completion for the Numero Uno slot in Smart Phones has ner been so hot. Cutting edge technology backed by engineering muscles of the giants is ensuring that your smart phone gets even more smarter. Here is the top-10 list of new trends and features that we have seen in new smart phones

1. Killer Cameras

Just when we thought Camera in a cellphone was more of a commodity, the Samsungs, Nokia and Apples of the world bumped it up with killer specs – hardware as well as software. Samsung’s latest kid on the block – Galaxy S4 – boasts of a giant 13 Megapixel camera. Nokia went further with its PureView technology and introduced Nokia PureView 808 that has a 41 Mega Pixel Sensor.
The war of cameras goes beyond Megapixels. Check out LG Optimus 3D with abilities to shoot and play 3D photos and videos. See here. And yes, did I tell you that you don’t need those annoying 3D glasses for watching 3D content. Super cool.
Then there are all these frills around cool features like video shooting with both cameras at the same time in S4, Sweep Panorama, Low Light Shooting Sensors of Sony’s Experia Z, Filters, Face Detection. This list can go on.

2.    Stunning Displays

iPhone 4 revolutionized the display of Cell Phones with its “Retina Display Technology” in 2010 with 330 ppi (Pixel Per Inch) density. Steve Jobs claimed that it is beyond the abilities of a human eye to recognize the difference beyond this resolution of 330 ppi. While Apple is till sticking with a ppi around the same number, the completion has moved on with 400+ppi territory. S4 has 441 ppi. With 1080P full HD support, the displays of today’s smart phones is stunning with clear and crisp texts and sharp images. Wonder what effect has on battery consumption though.

3. Wireless Charging

The new Wireless Charging Technology found in Nokia Lumia phones allows for charging your cellphone without wires. You still need to “put” the phone on a compatible Wireless Charging device, typically a Charging Pad. Imagine just dumping your phone on a Charging Pad while you are driving a car or when you sleep at night and the phone gets charged. The new Qi wireless standard is being adopted by the industry with lead from Nokia. Check out Nokia Lumia 920.This means that a Nokia Wireless charger can potentially charge compatible Samsung Galaxy phone.

4. NFC (Near Field Communication)

Near Field Communication is the latest buzz in phone-to-phone and phone-to-accessories communication. Bring two NFC Compliant devices next to each other and share the content seamlessly. Simply touch your Nokia Lumia 920 with the compliant Headset accessory and bingo! Bluetooth is such a passé.

5. Processing Prowess

The CPUs of smart phones have become increasingly powerful. Galaxy S4 has an Eight Core processors with 2 GB RAM.  These Specs beat the laptop that I had few years back hands down. The rich graphics, heavy games and ever increasing need for a snappy and fluid touch screen demands heavy muscles bundled in a thin package of a smart phone.

6.    Smart Touch or Not

All smart phones have Capacitive Touch Screens these days. However, the capacitive touch requires you to touch the screen with your fingers. Try using it while walking in a chilly and windy weather of Chicago and I bet you will wish you had that old school phone with buttons. Capacitive Touch does not work with gloves on. Not anymore though. Nokia Lumia 920 allows you to operate your phone with gloves on.
Galaxy S4 goes further. It has this cool feature of “Finger Hover”.  Want to peek into the email before you open it? Just hover your finger over the email (without actually touching it) and the Email App shows you two line summary of the email. There are many other Apps that support the “Finger Hover”. This is similar to a “Mouse Hover” in the good old PCs.

7. Eye to Eye

The front cameras of the phones are no longer only for Video Chats etc. Check out Galaxy S4s cool new features. The Front Camera of Samsung has the ability to watch your eye movements and make the phone behave accordingly. For example, the phone switches off the display if it senses no one is looking at it, saving some battery. It can also stop and start videos depending on whether someone is looking at the screen. The video will automatically pause if you glance away from screen and it will restart when the eyes refocus on the screen. Pretty cool.

8. Size Matters

The size of the smart phones is trending to increase. It all started with 3.5inch Apple iPhone. Samsung raised the bar with 4.3 Inch S2. S3 was bigger 4.8 inch. S4 is even bigger – 5 inch. The Note II is even bigger with 5.5 inch screen. LG, HTC, Sony have similar size phones. And that seems to be the trend. Apple is falling in line, slowly.

9. Water Resistance

I wish we had this few years back. I would have saved one phone at least. Sony’s Xperia Z boasts off to be water resistant. Pour water on it. Dip it completely into water. The company guarantees your machine will be safe. Wow ! Great boon during the Mumbai rains.

10. And all those Frills

a. Virtual Personal Assistant – Hello Siri.
The voice assisted virtual assistant on your phone is new frill, lead by Appl’s Siri. I have doubts how useful it is though. Samsung has SVoice
b. Infrared Booster – Double up as TV Remote
This may be quite useful. Double up your Phone as a Universal Remote with its Infrared capabilities. Check out Galaxy S4 and HTC OneX
c. Tilt to Scroll
No need to touch. Tilt the phone up and down to scroll.
d. Fitness Tracker
More of an app. But quite useful. Galaxy S4

Still to Come

Then there is buzz around what’s in Store.

• Unbreakable Glass
• Flexible Phones – Prototype has been on display during last CES Event in the US
• Good Battery Life. This is my fantasy though. Its not going to be a reality soon