More power to the phone

Finally, what about phones that don't run out of power -- or at least can run far longer than current phones without being recharged? One interesting approach is the Atlas Kinetic concept phone.

Designed by Ricardo Baiao of Portugal-based DesignerID, this device will draw power from the motion of its user walking, sitting down or even running to catch a bus.

In one way, it's like the self-winding watches of the 1960s -- it's got a built-in series of weights, rotors and springs that generate power whenever it's shaken or moved. That power, in turn, runs a generator that charges the battery.

Other creative approaches to power are also emerging. For instance, a recent patent granted to Apple points toward a unique approach to a solar phone. The device's screen would generate power with invisible photovoltaic layers that would gather the sun's light -- or a room's artificial lighting -- and turn it into electricity.

A couple of concept phones already discussed take unique approaches to power. P-Per uses an organic free radical battery, or ORB. Because it's flexible, light and only as thick as a business card, an ORB power pack can be stuffed into the nooks and crannies of a phone. Best of all, the battery can potentially be fully charged in as little as 30 seconds. Japan's NEC is working on prototypes of the technology.

Further out on the horizon is Morph's power source. The entire surface is covered with what Nokia's Ryhanen calls nanowire grass, which generates electricity in a way similar to how plants use photosynthesis to grow. "The nanowire grass is covered with a biomolecule that will harvest energy from solar light," explains Ryhanen.

Any network, any time

The shape of future phones and how they'll work is fascinating, but what will they connect to? Currently, most handsets can connect to a single type of cellular network. A few current handsets also have built-in Wi-Fi support.

But today's technology requires a different radio for each type of network, which means that phones that support multiple types of wireless networks are bulky, heavy power hogs. By contrast, the phone of tomorrow will have a single radio that's controlled by sophisticated software capable of connecting to multiple networks.

"People have been working on software-defined radios for some time," says IDC's Bakhshi. "At some point soon, they will get it right."

When it senses a new network, this phone of the future will automatically reconfigure itself to communicate on the new system. That means the device will work equally well on an EV-DO network in the US, a WiMax network in Korea and a GSM system in Europe.

Oh, the possibilities...

The phone of tomorrow depends on the imagination of phone designers to put the necessary software and hardware together in ways that are only starting to be envisioned today. The experts we contacted made it clear that we are on the cusp of an exciting era where practically anything will be doable with communications technology.