Then,too much power is not all that good,especially since there will be a dearth of applications optimised to benefit from the four cores,at least initially.And the quad-core means the phone will also need a battery which is up to the task.while the first mave of quad -core smartphones have already been announced,these will at the best be trendsetters for the future.
3.Carrier billing for applications
since 2008,smartphone users had to register their credit card or debit card details on the device's application store to purhase paid apps.BUt this is set to change as Microsoft,Google and even Blackberry are initiating operator billing for apps.with a lot many people still appreshensive about keying intheir card details,opera to billing will break the glass celling as far as purchasing apps is concerned.In certain countries,Google's Andorid Market ( Now Google play )users have the option of billing to their mobile account.
Microsoft has worked on a Direct Billing Gateway with Mach that allows users to pay for market place apps thourgh their phone bills.Even Research-in-Motion ha announced that more that 400 carriers around the world have deployed integrated carier billing for their costumers on blackberry App World.
4.Bigger,Better Screens
Apple did introduce relatively bigger screen size with the launch of the first
iPhone,but other manufacturears heve started looking beyong the 3.5-inch capacitive display.The new mantra for smartfhones display is"bigger,the better" with the standrad now hoveing between 4 and 5 inches.
Providing competition to handsets like the Galaxy Note, the new LG Optimus 4xHD and HTC One X have 4.7-inch display while the Ascend DQuad and the Ascend D Quad XL sport4.5-inch displays.Even screen resolution has been inthe limelight with companies introducing 1280x720 pixel screen that can offer rich coloours and best quality Videos and images.
5.Is Jelly Bean the future.?
the natural succession after the Android 4.0 will be Android 5.0,also known as the Jelly Bean.Usually there has been a time gap between two new versions of the Android OS.But this time things look different,especially since Windows 8 is round the corner.
With smartphones with ice-cream sandwich still a rarity,the rumours of Jelly Bean are suddenly gaining ground.latest report suggest the next version of the Android oprating system may release as early as Q2(April-june) 2012.Recently,Asus confirmed it would be the first to offer the update.
6.Better camera?
Along with better processors ad bigger displays,the cameras in smartphones too have been in the limelight of late.Surprisingly,instead of the megapixel war,the focus seems to have shifted to technology that can enhance images as ell as the process of capturing them.
Nokia recently cornered the headline with the 808 pureview with its unprecedented 41MP sensor to capture beautifuuly clear and sharp images at the regular resulution of up to 8MP.HTC,meanwhile,has used technology to reduce the time taken to click a snap on smartphones to 0.7 seconds.Planning to buy digital camera,anyone?
7.Cheaper Smartphones
Smartphones will no longer be the preserve ofthe rich. While operators and Indian handset manufactures are al ready trying to bring in affordable smartphones, Airtel CEO Sunil Bharti Mittal has announced that he wants smartphone prices to drop to below $50.This price point Q is about half of what And roid smartphones are currently selling for. Although there will be a huge difference in terms ofthe hardware and performance of high-end and FQ low-end smartphones, Intel is working on a 1GHz proces- sor using which even flagship phones would cost around $1 50. The factthat the chipmaker has tied up with Lava in
India could be an indicatorto where the market is headed. Time for democratising the smartphone.
8.NFC to get mainstream
Near Field Communication, or NFC, has been in the news fora couple of years. Butthen, like B|uetooth,NFC too will take some time to go mainstream. Forthis,the basic requirementis the existence of an ecosystem of handsets and services. Even as companies work on applications, an increasing number of
handsets are becoming NFC enab|ed.Whi|e the final goal is on utilising the technology for mobile payments, which will take a some time to materialise, this technology is already being used to initiate secure and quick data transfer within a close range.The technology will also come in handy to fetch instant infor-mation, by tapping against an NFC tag. Meanwhile, NFC-enabled SIM cards have started making their debut.
9.LTE
LTE, or Long Term Evolution, is also creating a lot of buzz. While some companies a re a I ready testing LTE lor "4G”) networks,even running pilot projects,some top-end models have started including this asa standar connectivity option. But not all smartphones are LTE-en-abled as some chips don't yet supportthe
technology. For in-stance, nV|DIA'sTegra3quad-core processor does not have LTE, the company has an-nounced partnerships with modem chip makers to work on this. But when these smart-phones or LTE itselfwill land in India is anyone’s guess, more so since we are still struggling with the slower 3G speeds.
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