Obvious Android Hardware Updates
- Higher resolution tablets and phones: The updated Transformer Prime (700T) due in the 2nd quarter of this year will give us the first "full HD" (1080p) tablet (unless the iPad 3 is released first), but it is unknown when we will get a full HD phone. The 720p HTC Rezound released last year certainly has me salivating at the idea. Especially in this age of 4.6" and up Android phones, 1080p shouldn't be too hard to pull off.
- LTE phones on Sprint and AT&T- LTE has beaten WiMAX in the 4G wars. Sprint and AT&T have been building their LTE networks, and LTE coverage is already available in certain areas. The only question is how long T-Mobile will hold onto their plenty-fast HSPA+ network.
- Better cameras: The iPhone 4S and the Nokia 900 have/will have perfectly brilliant cameras, so it stands to reason that Android will step its game up in this area
- Quad-core processors, more memory: These specs have been steadily increasing for all smartphones, like the (rumored) quad-core, 2GB Motorola Atrix 3
- NFC: The last two Nexuses and the Samsung Galaxy S II have had this feature (along with some others), so it can be reasoned that more and more phones will get NFC, especially if Google Wallet catches on
There are two big specs that I'm waiting on. The first is battery capacity The Droid Razr Maxx has a 3300mAh (!) battery that pretty much doubles the life of the Droid Razr, an Android phone with pretty standard battery life. Engadget played a video on loop for 16.5 hours on that thing, which is outstanding. If this doubling of battery life is possible by increasing the thickness of a 7mm phone to 9mm, imagine how big a battery could fit in, say a 11mm phone. Quadruple?
The other big "spec" update I'm looking forward to is the operating system. Android is great for customization, but has always been lacking in the stability, pretty-to-look-at, ease-of-use, and efficient-OS specs. I am hoping Android improves these qualities. These aren't hardware changes; these are software issues.
First is the aesthetics, which Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has sufficiently addressed. I'd have a hard time saying ICS is as pretty as iOS or Windows Phone 7, but it's definitely leaps and bounds better than Gingerbread. When I compare a stock Gingerbread phone to iOS, it's like comparing Windows 98 to Mac OS X. There may still be room for improvement here, but if nothing changes this year, I'll be alright with it. In fact, I think there's little to no reason to skin Android anymore, so hopefully we'll see a reduction in the skinning of Android by HTC, Samsung and Motorola. That won't happen immediately, of course, because skins are how manufacturers set themselves apart and pure Android Nexus phones always have hardware specs that are slightly worse than competing Android phones. But I bet by 2013, manufacturers will have a hard time convincing users to buy phones that look worse than pure stock Android phones and get updates months later. I've been led to believe that bad skins are a large reason for Android instability, so that should improve with more stock Android phones.
Much like the Windows vs OS X debate, Android is arguably more difficult to use than iOS. Partly this is due to the lack of features and customization in iOS, but some of this is due to inconsistencies in apps. For example, checkboxes are different in the settings for every app. Some change their text when the box is checked, and others don't. Concrete Example: In the settings for Handcent SMS, checking "Enable popup" in the Notification Settings will change the descriptive text to "Popup is enabled" and unchecking the box will change the text to "Popup is disabled". Yet, just a few lines below that, the text below the Notifications checkbox reads "Display message notifications in the status bar" whether the checkbox is checked or not. This descriptive text is useless when you can't tell if it applies to the current state of a setting or if the text is just static. There are quite a few usability issues in Android like this.
Google took a step in the right direction. They created an Android Design page to guide developers to creating intuitive, beautiful apps. Sadly, descriptive text for settings is not addressed, but I'm sure this will be helpful nonetheless.
The OS itself may get some new usability features. I really just want an "undo" feature. But I can also see Google copying Apple's Siri, by giving more advanced voice capabilities to Android. There are Siri-esque apps out there, like Iris and Jeannie, but they pretty much garbage compared to Siri.
Lastly, efficiency improvements are of utmost importance. Slapping a huge capacity battery into the phone may be a sufficient solution, but Android needs to be better at managing its tasks. If background data is turned off, then no programs should be running, unless they are OS-related tasks. And my phone battery shouldn't dwindle down to nothing if I'm in an area with no cell coverage.
Android Price Point
As I said in the last article, tablets are going to get cheap, but that mostly refers to used, refurbished and discount tablets. No one will be able to touch Amazon's Kindle Fire at $199. Tablets are still developing and adding features, so I imagine the average decent Android tablet (and iPad) will stay at $500 for another year. While the introduction of Windows 8 tablets this year, one might expect the price to drop, but the hardware requirements for running Windows and the cost of a Windows license will probably make standard Win tablets $700 and up. Amazon has a unique position here, using a free OS and an ecosystem that lets them sell tablets at a loss but make it up in media sales. I look forward to the sequel to the Kindle Fire: a tablet that is $200-$300 but not as underpowered as the current Kindle Fire.
Windows Phone 7
This may be a good year for Microsoft fans. Windows Phone 7 phones will start to catch up with iPhone and Android phone specs. The upcoming Lumia 900 will be a 4.3" LTE phone with 16GB of memory, and a 8MP camera with 720p video. I know what you Android fans are thinking: "Welcome to 2011, Microsoft." Still, Microsoft has been steadily upping their game, especially by adding Nokia as a manufacturer, and while they may not catch up to the top-of-the-line Android phone this year, they have the rock-solid WP7 OS as a selling point.
Windows Phone 8 is rumored to be released this year, and that should bring many cool updates, like support for multiple display sizes, NFC, and some type of desktop OS (Windows 8) integration.
Blackberry
Blackberrys will continue their descent into insignificance. RIM did a good job of booting their old CEOs but probably made a mistake hiring Thorsten Heins as the new CEO. RIM stock took a dive when he was appointed and although it came up a bit a few days later, it's currently back down at 15.07. Numerous bloggers have voiced their disapproval of Heins, mostly noting that he isn't going to make the drastic changes RIM needs to compete with Apple and Google. What actual changes are in store for RIM and Blackberrys this year? I don't really care; researching BB depresses me. The only consolation is that they are still handily beating Windows Phone 7, though I am sure this will not continue.
