Don’t expect major hardware overhauls for the iPhone in 2009, but here are top 10 things Apple needs to seriously consider to keep with the competition from Palm, BlackBerry and Android.
- Faster processor and more memory. Many iPhone users have been reporting that their iPhones have been increasingly sluggish with more apps installed. A faster processor and more memory should fix it.
- Better Battery Life. One day of use is hardly good these days. 5 day of normal usage with a single charge like the Nokia E71 would be awesome.
- Higher Resolution Camera. What’s with that whimpy 2 MegaPixel camera? Add a 5 Megapixel+ camera so I don’t need to carry a separate point-and-shoot camera.
- Video Capture. Oh, of course the camera needs to support video capture as well. 720p at a minimum and super easy upload to YouTube.
- Flash Support. What kind of web browser doesn’t have Flash support these days?
- WiMax Support. Forget 3G, add WiMax support to the iPhone for ultra fast wide area wireless network at peak rate of 40MBps.
- Seamless data tethering. It would be so sweet to be able to use the iPhone as a wireless modem for my laptop. Apple, why do you have to forbid 3rd party developers like NullRiver to give this to us?
- Hardware Slideout Keyboard. This one may cause a religious debate, but many still think a hardware keyboard is more usable. Add a slideout hardware keyboard for easier typing. But we want it without making the iPhone any thicker.
- Bigger Screen. Increase screen size to 4″, maybe add a foldable OLED display. This would make web browsing so much better.
- Make iPhone a True Open Platform. Apple, please stop policing the 3rd party ecosystem and rejecting software that you don’t want other people to compete with you, like the Opera iPhone Web Browser.
Bonus: Add true turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts. Yes, please add the whole shh bang of a top-tier Garmin GPS device. 3D views, turn-by-turn guidance, speaking street names, live traffic info, real-time gas prices, integration with Google Maps. We don’t want to buy a separate TomTom or Garmin device. The nuvifone looks pretty sweet to us.
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