Everyone's buzzing about the mobile Web--again.
The debut of Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) iPhone last year reignited interest in the sector, pushing mobile-service providers, software companies and handset makers to go full speed ahead on developing new products and services. Here's a peek at some of the latest trends and developments.
Phones will become more iPhone-like. "The display will be slightly bigger, and the resolution will be better," says Muzib Khan, vice president of product management at Samsung. "The screen will have similar capabilities to that of a laptop."
Christian Lindholm, director and partner of strategic design consult Fjord, says the optimal screen would be 4 to 5 inches--large enough to easily read a Web site but small enough to slip into a pocket. (The iPhone's screen is 3.5 inches.) Five years from now, 3-inch screens will be on the lowest-end phones, he predicts.
Functions associated with Web browsing will get an upgrade as well, says Khan. Phone batteries will improve, and multi-gigahertz processors, now common in computers, will power brawnier mobile browsers. Touch screens will become more prevalent, supplanting the five-way control button that most phones currently use to navigate the Web, though they will not completely replace phone keyboards.
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