Mobile Phone As Swiss Army Knife

It seems the latest popular way to describe the mobile phone of the future is to call it the wireless "Swiss Army Knife", since all the handset makers seem to be tacking on extra features so that the devices do a variety of different things. Of course, as per usual in the world of "but, wait... there's more!" not all of these combinations make sense. Often, in the rush to combine various features into a single device, the device makers guarantee that none of the features works particularly well. There are the obvious innovations (adding PDA/smartphone features), and then the less obvious ones, such as the mosquito repellent ringtone or the smoke detector mobile phone. In the end, though, it appears that the real advances will come from software and services - as that will allow the end-user to customize and configure their phones as they see fit. While some hardware modifications will make sense, they need to be in fairly high demand for it to be cost-efficient for the handset makers, and by offering more customizable applications and services, users can turn their own phones into the most valuable digital Swiss Army Knife for their own personal needs.