What's next with smartphones? Market research firm Juniper Research expects that vendors will add 3D functionality and switch to high end hardware features, such as dual core processors, in order to continue to drive interest high end smartphones.Juniper Research projects that revenue will reach $94 billion worldwide in 2015. Many of today's leading edge features, such as application store connectivity and touchscreens, will be rolled into just about all cell phones sold in the US. In order to try and differentiate their wares, suppliers will focus on delivering higher end functionality.

The emergence of 3D technology in smartphones could have a negative impact on small and medium businesses' networks. This application requires a great deal of bandwidth and is subject to contention issues, such as jitter and delays. To ensure that employees' smartphone experiences are satisfying, businesses may have to add more bandwidth and put more granular network management tools in place, changes that will require additional spending during a time when many budgets are quite tight.

In addition, more sophisticated phones will be needed in order to support the higher end applications. Dual core processors (a scenario where a device has two rather than one main processor) have become popular in servers and desktop systems. Recently, they have been moving down the food chain to laptop systems, so their incorporation into cell phones seems like the next probable movement. However, one of the challenges that vendors will face is designing batteries that are capable of supporting the more sophisticated processing that will be done on the phones. Currently, batteries would need to be regularly recharged in order after running HD applications.

Smartphones have been both a blessing a curse for small businesses. On the plus side, they have helped companies streamline communications and become more efficient. However, managing the devices has been an ongoing challenge, one area where many corporations have fallen short of developing optimal management plans. Companies need to take a close look at this area because the challenges will become more complex as the devices' capabilities become even more sophisticated in the next few years.