Thinking about the hardware here rather than the software and the apps.
Basically smartphones are highly portable computers – they get used wherever we are, at home, on transport, at work, whilst driving (!) etc.

This need for them to be highly portable means there’s a maximum size they can be before they lose that portability which is crucial to how much we use them, and for what purpose.

In terms of hardware, they generally have a touch-screen interface, including haptic feedback, have a screen for display of images and video, a microphone and speakers for recording and broadcasting sound, a camera, an accelerometer and a GPS. Some have NFC now as well. Apparently you can use them for making phone calls too 😀

Now I’m wondering what else we could realistically want in a smartphone that’s not already there. I guess we can make them more shockproof, lighter and have better batteries but in terms of hardware it seems like they have everything we currently need, and could build into them without making them like a 1980’s carphone.

Obviously computing power for a given price is likely to continue to grow, albeit Moore’s Law is beginning to slow up, I believe.

It seems to me the main innovation in terms of what we can do with smartphones is going to be in the software, including the apps, rather than the hardware.

Thoughts?

We have bounced to big from small so I reckon small is next 🙂
Faster, cheaper, better will be the progrssion

Wireless charging will be the next big one, especially when its compatible across all devices not manufacturer exclusive

Imagine walking into your home/office/car and never thinking about charging your device

Reliability, waterproofing, and ultimately as a substitute for laptops etc – have a monitor and keyboard on your desk with some kind of wireless connection, just bring your phone close and use it.

Having the grunt / interfaces to replace a desktop pc by just placing it next to the keyboard and bug screen,
Probably won’t happen due to the sales drop off of PCs though.

Edit: what mogrim said

Wireless charging will be the next big one,

seriously about 2 years late on that one….

Reliability, waterproofing,

Wireless charging and wireless/bluetooth means phones should be much more sealed
edit#

Having the grunt / interfaces to replace a desktop pc by just placing it next to the keyboard and bug screen,

What 90% of people do with a desktop a mobile would cover it

It’d be nice to have one with decent/reliable phone reception…

Mine’s presently cooking my tea. It always over-seasons things though. Perhaps the boffins can address that particular issue

Mogrim, I believe that’s the roadmap for Windows devices.

Think of using whatever device you have with you as a terminal to access YOUR online PC….

We’re talking projector keyboards and screens, motion detected mouse cursor movements etc.

Wireless charging will be the next big one,

seriously about 2 years late on that one….

Native on an iPhone? Nope

Mike….2 years too late on inductive charging yes, I don’t see many Costa/MacD’s outlets saying you can use free phone charging here via wifi

Features i’d like
– Star Wars hologram projectors
– “Find me”, whereby the phone flies into my hand
– autonomous text/phone conversations with people, especially PPI callers
– screen that is clear in the sun as it is at night

Oh, if it was as easy as that we could all work for Apple or Samsung for a fortune.

One gap in the market I can see that I don’t understand why Apple (or the others) hasn’t filled yet, the non-phone smart phone. Here me out on this….

I have an iPhone 6 and it’s very lovely, especially as I don’t have to pay for it. I use it mostly for mobile e-mails and web searching I make less than 1 call a day on it on average and receive about the same – and bear in mind this is my WORK phone. I could live without the phone element of it.

On the other hand a guy in the office has an iPod touch, it looks almost the same, does almost the same thing, but the batter lasts a lot longer and it’s thinner/lighter not that that bothers me, but I know it’s a battlefield in the smart-phone wars.

I’d live without the telephone element, if they made a 4G enabled iPod touch in favour of longer battery life. I use WhatsApp a lot which I know needs a number to function, but I’ve had it working on a different phone to the number I’ve assigned it so that wouldn’t be a problem.

I know it wouldn’t be for everyone, but for me personally phone calls are a completely pain in the arse – I get lots of work in every day and it comes in nice neat, ordered blocks via e-mail, a phone call jumps the queue and if I’m out and about requires me to remember it and make notes.

Mogrim, I believe that’s the roadmap for Windows devices.

I know, and it sounds great. I love the idea of being able to get home, drop my phone into a dock and seamlessly use it as a home PC.

Although it must be said a lot of the advantages of this idea have been eroded by the move to cloud computing and online storage: “back in the day” I’d frequently find myself cursing that the file I wanted was on a different machine, that happens less and less these days.

The next big thing that people actually care about is batteries being replaced by something much much better (possibly involving fuel cells, graphene, or nano-something-or-other) to give a charge that lasts weeks not hours.

But aside from that I’d also like to see some flexible screens than can be resized (unfolded or stretched) as required.

When the best you can come up with is wireless charging then yes I’d say we are 90% there already.

Replacing a PC isn’t going to be a big one especially for Apple as it will cannibalise their own sales. No need for a MacBook or ipad, just use your phone!! Works out better for Google or MS down this route as they aren’t really hardware people.

MS need to put the XboxOne onto their handsets like you can with the PS4 and a Sony Experia.

Battery technology is the current tech bottleneck IMHO, that’s where we hopefully should see the biggest improvements.

I’d like to see a solution to the size paradox; I want a large-screen phone whilst carrying the smallest device possible, which is always a trade-off. Advances in display tech to give us foldable or rollable screens aren’t too far off I don’t think. Imagine a big daft phone like the iPhone 6+ or some other ‘phablet’ (ugh) that you could just fold in half when you’ve done and stick in your pocket.

Wearables is the other one. I used to think that eventually people will stop carrying wallets and replace them with phones in folio-style cases that also can carry cards and money. But as the increasingly inaccurately named “phone” gets more functionality the need to carry all this crap goes down. NFC payments negates the need for cash, and we already have “an app for that” for a lot of store loyalty cards and the like. But if we get all that together and stick it in a watch, you don’t even need to carry a phone any more.

So, that would be my holy grail I think. A smartwatch taking a SIM and responsible for core connectivity, NFC (fingerprint-reading glass to prevent walk-by fraud) payments, GPS etc, combined with a tablet to do all the heavy lifting; web, games and suchlike. If you don’t need that functionality then all you really need to carry day-to-day is some sort of Bluetooth headset for making calls. Until bio-wear tech takes off and you can use a cochlear implant for that, anyway.

almightydutch – Member

Mogrim, I believe that’s the roadmap for Windows devices.

Think of using whatever device you have with you as a terminal to access YOUR online PC….

We’re talking projector keyboards and screens, motion detected mouse cursor movements etc.

I wouldn’t be surprised, pretty much everyone in our neighbours office are using Surface Pro devices as PCs, admittedly they’re i5 based but with a external screen and wireless mouse and keyboard they’re undisguisable from desktops when they’re in the office, but far more portable than laptops on the move. The CAD guys are still using big workstations of course, they’re using massive dual-Xeon based things.

give a charge that lasts weeks not hours

Battery tech is unlikely to see massive jumps just incremental improvements. Until then buy a Sony far better battery life than Apple and Samsung IME.

Mine’s presently cooking my tea. It always over-seasons things though. Perhaps the boffins can address that particular issue

Don’t complain. It’s good security practice to salt a hash.

geoffj – Member

Wireless charging will be the next big one,
seriously about 2 years late on that one….

Native on an iPhone? Nope[/quote]
Yes your phone maker has decided to stick it’s head in the sand, sad isn’t it? You only get the tech they decide you can have, that they think you are ready for. Could that be one of the biggest stumbling blocks in tech advancement?

“Basically smartphones are highly portable computers “

My wife says her little Samsung has virtually replaced her laptop (and she’d even bought a new one recently to replace the ageing fire hazard Vaio thing). She only really does emails, Whatsapp/Skype, BBC radio player/iPlayer anyway, so it can do all those things. The only limitation for her is the small screen size. The ability to link with a larger screen would be good.

I find mine astonishing; I use it for all sorts of things, including the above, as well as video, compass, maps, flashlight, music player (through wireless speakers), and although I’ve got a fancy DSLR with lenses, the camera for still photos is surprisingly good.

I don’t really think I want more features to be honest; I am very wary of things like NFC and automatic wireless communication with other devices. I don’t do anything that I want to be secure, such as online shopping, on it.

We have bounced to big from small so I reckon small is next

But bigger brings the phone call alive.

On the subject of wireless charging, we’re not at the stage where this can be done without having a charging “pad/cradle” of some sort. Is that correct? What Apple do well is launch a new tech with the necessary infrastructure to ensure success and adoption. Maybe they will be the ones who release “proper” wireless charging where the phone is charged using the Force or some other magic. Are we nearly there yet? 🙂

I don’t do anything that I want to be secure, such as online shopping, on it.

Really? There are many, many, many, many more malwares, spybots, keyloggers etc on PCs than there are on smart phones.

– screen that is clear in the sun as it is at night

I’m a bit surprised that nobody has yet shoved a kindle screen on the back of a smartphone

next big step will be making them wearable as they slowly move towards becoming part of our very bodies.

in the mean time wireless charging should have already happened and fuel cells for phones are coming soon. I also want mine to be a drone.

maybe I’m just wanting an Iain M Banks world.

The ability to link with a larger screen would be good

Chromecast?

“Chromecast?”

Would that work on a standard computer screen? IE, not a tv, as they already have such technology built-in.

“Really? There are many, many, many, many more malwares, spybots, keyloggers etc on PCs than there are on smart phones.”

Not on my computer there aren’t.

I’d like an iPhone 6 with a slide out keyboard.

I’m a bit surprised that nobody has yet shoved a kindle screen on the back of a smartphone

I give you the YotaPhone

Don’t complain. It’s good security practice to salt a hash.

Ahem, this way please sir >>>>>> http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/jokes-that-95-of-people-wont-get

We won’t have any of that kind of behaviour in here. You’ll be wanting the Lounge Bar.

I think with the speed that nano technology is developing ,there will be closer links to live health monitoring and testing built in to some models.

Battery Technology is holding them back a bit – I think a faster charging battery, which lasts days (rather than 1 day at best) would be a big improvement.

Flexible chassis/screen would be good.

I’d like an iPhone 6 with a slide out keyboard.

There have been keyboard cases around for quite a while for perverts people like you:

Though any true Bluetooth keyboard will work with most smartphones.

I’d like one i cold plug in to my brain to do my work for me

Wireless charging is already here but yes you need a cradle and I’m not sure I’d want to be in a coffee shop with such a large electromagnetic field that it charges everyones phones! A friend of mine was a Nokia tester and her bike computer and the wireless charging on her phone had a bit of an ‘interaction’ causing it to heat up to scary levels in her bag.

I think Project Ara is the next step in terms of hardware. Modular phones, so you plug-in/upgrade a bit of the phone at a time.

Fuel Cells – couple of years out methinks:

Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Hopefully iPhones will beam their own keyboards shortly:
Virtual Keyboards

I think a faster charging battery, which lasts days (rather than 1 day at best) would be a big improvement.

I don’t really want longer battery life especially; it’s rare than I’m away from a power source for long enough to merit it. Rather, batteries need to be much, much smaller.