Top 10 smartphone features we'd like to see

2. VoIP and cellular switching
Shaun Nichols: Anyone who has had to deal with poor reception issues can get behind this one. In just about every city you'll find areas where, despite having a Wi-Fi or wireless broadband connection, you just can't seem to get any bars to make a call.

VoIP services are emerging on mobile phones, but telcos have fought them tooth and nail, despite advice from just about everyone else on the planet to accept the services.

Our ideal implementation would be a VoIP service owned or supported by the carrier which would allow the user to make calls over Wi-Fi or wireless broadband when the handset is experiencing poor reception. At the very least, the handset could allow the option to redial over VoIP when a call is dropped.

This is, of course, a great idea that would be useful to customers and, as such, is not likely to happen any time soon.

Iain Thomson: Oh Shaun, so cynical. It's not a good idea that won't be happening soon, it's capitalism. It'll come, but you'll have to pay for it twice.

The telecoms industry still seems to be scared of VoIP, having seen previous established business models go up in smoke thanks to disruptive technology. They are not about to let that happen to them, but such an approach is doomed to failure.

VoIP and mobiles are meant for each other. Sooner or later a profitable way will be found to let users do what is patently needed and make this one come true.

1. Decent battery life
Iain Thomson: Battery life is the curse of mobile computing. It's the reason I always carry a pencil and paper in my bag, because without power a computer is just a very expensive door-stop.

The fact is that smartphones need processing power to be smart. That takes a toll on battery life and most people want a phone that doesn't require a power cable every day.

Every business traveller has experienced that sinking feeling when a power cord has been left at home, and I yearn for phones like the early Nokias that gave days of battery life.

Power and performance are inverse squares, but mobile phone manufacturers could do a lot to mitigate these effects with factory default settings. Go for low power use and explain to users what a permanent subscription to Twitter would mean in power terms. Choice will be key here.

Shaun Nichols: It used to be that battery life was a minor inconvenience for design and a nagging issue for users. As the other components have developed and grown in power, the battery has become a major design obstacle that is keeping some very cool features out of a lot of handsets.

We've already seen this on the iPhone, where Apple has had to drop support for Flash in large part because the handset's battery couldn't serve up the power it demanded from the processor and other components.

This is only going to get worse when we transition to the next wireless broadband format. Battery capacity needs to take a major step forward soon or we could see innovation stall across the industry.