Expect these new features for your smartphones this year: flexible screen phones, Ubuntu and Firefox OS, or even a smartphone that replaces your car keys.
In this high competitive market, smartphones are just getting better that you cannot resist getting a new one. If you are planning to buy a new smartphone, you should take a look at these cool features that are coming your way.
1. Flexible Screen
Samsung is planning to bring 5.5 inch flexible screens to their next line of Galaxy phones. They will use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology to replace glass substrate with plastic material. With this technology, the screen is claimed to be unbreakable. So far, Samsung is the frontrunner in developing unbreakable screen.
Following Samsung’s idea, Google and Motorola are currently working on their next ultimate ‘X Phone’, which evokes curiosity from public. According to a Wall Street Journal report that broke the story, they were also looking at a flexible screen. Most probably they aim to take on the future versions of the Galaxy or iPhone.
Meanwhile, Apple is preparing in-cell touch display technology for its coming iPhone 5S. This technology offers better touch sensitivity with minimized thickness. This will make the phone much thinner than before.
2. New Operating System
Ubuntu phoneUbuntu, a popular indie operating system for PCs is making its way to smartphones. Like Android, it is based on Linux and will be available as an open-sourced operating system. Currently, there are already four major mobile operating systems: iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows. It will be interesting to see how Ubuntu competes with the other platforms.
Ubuntu is not the only one who will raise its flag in 2013. There is Tizen, an open-sourced system, which is also based on Linux. The difference is, Tizen is not only meant for phones and tablets, but also for multimedia devices in cars, television, etc.
Firefox phoneFirefox open-sourced system is also moving towards smartphones. This operating system is developed using HTML 5 technology. To encourage developers to create applications on their platform, they have designed an app store called Firefox Marketplace.
3. Say goodbye to car keys
phone as car keysHyundai is working to develop an embedded NFC tag that allows you to open your car, start the engine and link up to the touchscreen with a simple swipe. With this new technology, you don’t have to worry about forgetting where you put your car key. How interesting is that? Nevertheless, this technology will not be available this year. It is predicted to be launched in 2015.
About the author
Sandra is a technology enthusiast and she is passionate about the industry. After graduating from University of South Australia, Sandra gained an experience in mobile VAS in Malaysia before coming back to Jakarta. She also served as a Secretariat in Malaysian Mobile Content Providers Association (MMCP) back then. Apart from that, she has the experience in mobile game in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Sandra enjoys reading a book and chill out at nice cafe accompanied by good coffee and she likes meeting new people.
Image Credits: Hongkiat
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