Like most manufacturers, mobile phone makers are constantly introducing products in hopes that one of them will be the next big thing.

This year, Motorola introduced several phones, including the MOTO Z10, that allows users to edit video on the cellphone before sending it by e-mail or uploading it directly to the internet.

Sony Ericsson has rolled out a new clamshell, the Z555, that can be controlled in part by a wave of the hand.

The idea is to save the weary or time-challenged user the effort of opening the device or halting other functions in use.

What else are handset makers considering as they contemplate the mobile phone of the future? Will it be bigger, smaller, lighter?

For one thing, analysts generally agree, the manufacturers will focus on making cellphones simpler — for which thanks are due, at least in part, to the iPhone. Essential functions will be easier to find and fewer keystrokes will be needed to get to them.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be room for a phone with novelty value that creates buzz and drives sales. With an eye toward creating that viral chatter while strengthening its market share, Nokia may be trying to create an even more versatile Swiss Army Knife of phones — one that combines a keyboard with a numeric pad and a game console. According to the website electronista.com, the company has filed patents for a triple-sliding phone that would achieve that trio.

Patents don’t always result in a final product, but they do give an idea of what the cellphone manufacturers are working on. Another website, unwiredview.com, said Sony Ericsson was devising a phone that would clean its screen every time it was closed — perhaps not the most necessary feature, but one that would save a lot of rubbing on shirt sleeves.

While companies are searching for the big seller, there is also room, among the one billion mobile phones sold a year, for niche products like a self-cleaning phone. Globally, Nokia dominates the market — still growing at about 20 per cent a year — with a share of almost 40 per cent. Samsung and Motorola round out the top three.

Whatever the features, the next big thing in mobile phones must not be too big, analysts agree. A phone must fit comfortably in a hand or a pants pocket. That is increasingly turning out to be a challenge, as new features have created a paradox for manufacturers.

With cellphone users almost as fickle as fashion hounds, manufacturers have had to speed up the time it takes to get a phone from the design stage into the hands of an executive showing it off at a trade fair.

“Everything about mobile phone design and production has to be quick, so it’s months from when there is an idea for a phone to the roll out on the market,” said James Marshall, Sony Ericsson’s head of product marketing.

“The market moves very quickly, so you have to minimise development times.”

International Herald Tribune