Top 10 future trends for mobile phones

Along with the power and flexibility of tomorrow's devices we should see a leap to cloud computing in the mobile market.

With smaller, more powerful devices having the lion's share of their hard work done remotely, users could expect to have all the power that they need without having the suit ripping form factor to go with it. Also, the de-centralised storage of documents, photographs and other data would enable users to work seamlessly with colleagues and even share devices without loss of data.

The removal of brand-based constraints from applications would also be a firm benefit with mobile cloud implementation, any device, any app; so long as it's registered on the network. We believe the mobile cloud would also see the distillation of mobile operating systems, leaving users with a quicker, more labour efficient experience when working on their devices.

The mobile cloud is already in use in certain applications such as Google's Gmail and Apple's MobileMe, but with more extensive usage network infrastructure would have to be fast and stable enough to support the high amount of data transfer needed to make such a concept viable which leads us on to our next point.

4G and beyond

The arrival of 4G is imminent and with it comes a new array of functionality and speed to enhance our mobile lives. Higher specced hardware and improved network infrastructure will provide businesses with a fast and stable data connection, and the next generation of applications, some of which we have already touched on, will run smoothly and - hopefully - without a hiccup.

Keeping you connected is only part of it, the higher speeds afforded users by 4G technology will allow the delivery of high-quality media to clients, enabling you to get your marketing materials out into the world that much faster.

With a new mobile generation coming around roughly every 10 years, we can expect to see 5G implemented fully by 2020, and following current projections will likely see peak data speeds of 1Gbps.