Technology

Smartphones in 2012

The power of smartphones has increased by leaps and bounds since the first smartphone, Apple’s iPhone, was released in 2007. The cheap smartphone segment, especially, has seen phenomenal growth in 2011. Faster processors, screens Excellent, high-quality cameras and other features boosted the popularity of smartphones in 2011. However, most of the cheap smartphones were found to be lacking in the battery department. Most of these phones, even today, require a battery recharge within 24 hours. But improved performance has been the scoring point for most of these phones.

But that doesn’t mean smartphones, and cheap smartphones in particular, won’t have room for innovation and improvement in 2012. Here’s a look at what manufacturers are likely to build into their products next year. .

Quad core processors

While 2011 was the year of dual-core, 2012 is expected to usher in quad-core processor even in cheap smartphones. Nvidia’s Tegra 3 is touted as nearly five times faster compared to the dual-core Tegra 2. Meanwhile, Qualcomm plans to release its quad-core Snapdragon CPUs with speeds in the 2.5GHz range. It also plans to release the quad-core Adreno graphics processor for gaming.

Near a communication field

Near Field Communication (NFC) is the technology that allows a smartphone user to wave their phone in front of a payment kiosk, instead of swiping their credit card, while making payments. To make that a reality, wireless carriers and budget smartphone makers need to build NFC capability into their phones, and retail outlets need to install kiosks that accept such payments. 2012 may finally see the implementation of NFC.

Screens with 720 pixel resolution

The HTC Rezound and Samsung Galaxy Nexus were the first phones to boast true 720-pixel resolution, meaning 1280 x 720-pixel displays. This is likely to become the norm for displays even on cheap smartphones next year and phone makers may even figure out how to understand pixels on a smaller screen. The result would be beautiful smartphone displays where individual pixels will be impossible to tell apart.

voice control

After Apple’s introduction of Siri on the iPhone 4S, Microsoft and Google are trying to outdo each other to incorporate more voice commands into their respective cheap smartphone platforms. As for Siri, there’s a slim chance Apple could open up its virtual personal assistant to third-party apps in 2012. Likewise, the company would expand Siri’s functionality by the end of the year.

Better phones at a lower cost

As the latest generation smartphone technology improves, average things are also following suit. This means that more cheap smartphones will be introduced to the market and more number of people will start using these phones. In fact, Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, has already predicted that Android smartphones will be the cheapest and that companies will have to find ways to reduce the cost of their products.

Whatever it is, you can expect to see a flurry of cheap smartphones hit the market in 2012.

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