10.Dual-core to dominate
The transition from single-core to dual-core processors has been anything but easy. Early last year, the first bunch of smartphones were spotted with dual-core processors. Now,making single-core devices thing of2011,thedual cores are becoming mainstream in 2012.
Brandssuch as sony Ericsson, which did not even announce a single handset with aquad-core processor has managed to stand up tall with dual-cores.Othernames like Samsung, HTC and LG are not lagging behind either, highIig hting the fact that dual-core smartphones are here to stay, at least a year or even more, Tip: Investing in a smartphone with dual-core processor will be a wise decision.
11.Goodbye card slots
Many criticised Apple for not including expandable memory card slots in the lPhone and the iPad. But it looks like other companies are also set to follow suite. At the moment, apart from iPhone, only Windows Phone smartphones come without expandable memory slots.
Now even Android devices are getting rid of the memory card concept. The recently announced Sony and HTC smartphones don‘t have one. It seems that even the companies have realised that with the increased inbuilt memory of smartphones, not many make use of up to 32GB expandable card slots.
12.Mobile money
India might be the second largest mobile market in the world but when it comes to technology we still lag behind.We have NlFC-enab|ed handsets now, but they are not being used for mobile payments.
However, the rest ofthe world is looking at fepladflg cash and plastic cards with smartphones. Recently,eBay partnered with UK carrierThree to
pre-install the native app for shopping on Android phones.gs Globally, MasterCard has come up with a Pay Pass cellphone trial that comes across as a contactless payment feature to allow cardholders to tap the phone instead of swiping the card.
