1. Battery life
With one hour intense talking/texting/browsing autonomy the battery of most smart phones out there is probably the biggest bottle neck in functionality. I never understood why it had to be like that. The technology is there to make batteries to last for weeks, not hours.
Different manufacturers offer different pricy and bulky solutions such as external plugg-able batteries that double up the phone's autonomy. Certain brands (like Motorola) do a better job than others. Different apps are offered as well to optimize the phone's battery consumption, turn off un-necessary services etc.
But that's about it. I think it's time for one manufacturer to step up to the plate and start to equip their smart phones with long lasting batteries to serve businesses and individuals users.
2. Some proprietary connectors
Apple is the champion of proprietary connectors, chargers, plug-ins and other doo-dads. While you appreciate the brand and the business driven philosophy, you can't stop thinking why don't companies design standard hardware.
I believe it will be in everybody's benefit and I actually talked to Android fans who would consider moving to iPhone if it had standard connectors and more free apps.
3. Screen sizes and keyboards
I know. You are still on a mobile phone. But screen sizes did historically suffer and for the most part they continue to suffer. Up until the more recent releases of Galaxy S5, Galaxy One and Galaxy Mega the productivity on a smart phone was low due to low usability and small screen sizes.
And it's not just the screen size, it's also the keyboard. On screen keywords remain relatively hard to use by most of the users. There are pretty advanced voice recognition features embedded in most of the phones but they are merely productivity tools: they are generally used more for quick search functions.
Let's see what iPhone 6 will have to say ...
4. Reliability of certain OS components
Android OS previous to versions 4.1 Jelly Bean (and even after) were fairly buggy especially in front end / gui components and icons management. I remember playing with one of my first versions of Android- it was a Gingerbread 2.3 and all of a sudden all my apps shortcuts vanished from my front page. And I had some 15 custom apps working with every day.
An earlier version, I believe it was a Doughnut 1.6, kept rebooting my LG smart phone a couple of times a day and for absolutely no reason (nothing should have triggered that).
The latest versions (i.e. KitKat) of Android are more stable. Apple's iPhone proved stable since earlier versions. And, surprisingly enough, same thing with the Windows phone: could not make one crash in a year.
5. Some hardware
For certain business applications there is a need for more on the phone storage and memory. While the current dual and quad processor platforms seem to suffice as far as horse power is concerned, we have seen demand in business applications that need to store data on the phone.
Those kinds of applications have strict requirements in terms of data availability, usability and performance and cannot rely on pulling data from a server in the cloud. At the same token, their on-the-phone databases are fairly large and need storage space and cache.
Make it a great day!
Adrian Corbuleanu
Miami Beach, FL
http://wittywebnow.com
Witty Web Solutions (http://wittywebnow.com) is a Miami Beach based software development company. Our code is lean, small foot print, easy to read, reliable and fast. We have excellent tech support. We save development costs by implementing agile project management techniques.
