WHAT'S HOLDING CELL PHONES BACK?

I know that it's counterintuitive to say this (especially working for a cell phone blog), but we need to stop advancing electronic devices. Remember those old chemistry problems where you have a balanced chemical system, and you're given the amount of each compound on the left hand side with the goal of finding out the amount of one of the compounds on the right hand side, except that there's a limiting reactant in the fray keeping the product amount from being anywhere near what it is capable of being?

Think of that, except with portable electronics, and instead of making salt water you can bankrupt companies and make consumers very angry.

There are several limiting reactants in the cell phone industry right now, and each of them is a nuisance that needs to be solved, or else we're going to hit a stasis in production that is going to be insanely unexpected, and one for which we will be completely unprepared. Our desire to continuously upgrade is overextending our ability to produce engineers that can advance the craft such technologies. It sucks.

1. Batteries. When Alessandro Volta invented the modern electric battery, did he expect it to become popular with the added crutch that it needs to be tended to like an infant? iPhones can barely last a full day of usage, and features that should be exemplified and glorified have to be toned down and carefully utilized in order to make the phone usable. And the sadder part is that we have had to do this for the last decade. Our device usage currently depends on its lifespan, not on our desire to actually use it. It's dehumanizing technology that makes every attempt to be personable and enjoyable. Is there hope? Zinc-Air batteries and methanol/hydrogen fuel cells. They promise electronics that are safely powered, and can last a looooooong time. Ironically, only time will tell if that is true.
2. Bandwidth. Even though thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable is being run all across the world every day, we still find ourselves as a nation that charges in upwards of $50 a month for a thirtieth of the speed available in Japan. It's insane that the internet has to be limited in our digitally-powered era, but phone companies have been touting their data plans like crazy, and as a result, the end user suffers from massive backups. The main culprit? Converting light into electricity.

   The current network infrastructure looks like someone driving a Bugatti Veyron from Wisconsin to downtown Chicago. It can plow through the empty roadways with the veracity of a cheetah, but once it hits the junction between I-90 and I-94--right where the city becomes visible--the ferocious engine must slow down to a standstill as it conforms to the traffic patterns of the modern citygoer. The fiber optic cables shoot light at momentous speeds, only to be converted to electricity in order to be handled by the local switches and servers, hence the network speed to the quickest that electrons can be handled by a computer (which isn't that fast). Is there hope? Yes. Those optical engineers have been working on optical switches for years (no conversion necessary), and the hope is that within the next 20-30 years, we could start seeing entire microprocessors operating as a system of lasers, mirrors, and prisms. For the non-technical, it means that you can download a lot of movies really really quickly. On any device.

3. Software and Hardware Elitism. Put 3.5mm headphone jacks on every device. Stop using silly proprietary charging and data connections. Open up your OS's and let the geeks swim around the source code for a little while. Let other music-playing phones sync with iTunes. Cell phone manufacturers need to stop behaving like playground bullies and play nicer with each other.Is there hope? Besides the whole iTunes nonsense, companies are starting to realize this. And by companies, I mean Samsung and Google. That's really it. But who knows, once the Swine Flu starts to dissipate, maybe Obama will do something about it.

I love cell phones, and I can't live without them. But I want them to match our ability to cure crafty diseases or build skyscrapers. Right now, cell phone companies need to craft devices with logic before they go play with science.