When mobile phones first came onto the market and were commercially viable for the masses, parents were faced with something of a dilemma. Most instantly recognised that being able to keep in touch with their children, whenever and wherever has huge benefits for their safety. That said, there was always the possibility that children with phones were more likely to be the victim of theft and additionally, parents were unable to completely control how their children used their phones. After a couple of years it became obvious that the benefits far outweighed the risks, and soon every child in the developed world had their own phone on their bedside tables.The risk of having your phone stolen was also very much reduced when cell phone operators started being able to block phones from working after they had been reported as stolen. Children where able to carry phones around with them wherever they went without the risk of coming into harm from someone wanting to steal it.

It is not just children that are helped to be safe by mobiles phones either. Many adults have found the benefits of being able to call help when they have been in a car accident, find where the nearest hospital is, or even find their way home in a blizzard. By allowing people to stay in contact with those close by or the other side of the world, many thousands of lives have been saved and much harm prevented. As they develop also, we will find new ways of using them to our advantage and their potential for good is almost limitless.

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As mobile Internet connectivity becomes increasing more widespread and the speeds continue to increase almost daily, there is a dwindling need to store all your applications and files on the phone itself. You can instead stream whatever information, games and functions you need from else ware, only when you need it. This then allows phones to essentially act like shells, that can be used for different things at different times, just by feeding different information into them.

How this will work is that you will have a central hub, either at home or hosted with an external company. Your handset will be able to ‘login’ easily to this hub, regardless of where you are in the world, and access all the files and programs that are stored on it. You will still need a certain amount of hardware in the phone, such as a camera and other electrical components, but you will be able to save huge amounts of space where memory, processors and mini fan accessories would normally be found. This means then that phones could be not much bigger than cable ties and you could even wear them as accessories such on a necklace or as a wrist-band. Breaking free of the weight and size that phones have had to comply with in years gone by could spawn a whole new era for them.

Richard Kane, technology researcher at the University of Bath recently gave his opinion on how mobile phones will advance. “ I predict that very soon all the requirements of the modern way of life will be served by phones…technology is getting smaller thanks to things like mini Deutsch connectors and people are becoming ever more mobile, so it make sense that people want to carry their life in their pocket”.

MP3 players used to be things you had in addition to your phone, but as there is plenty of storage room in your cell these days, more and more people are using them for their music devices. Camera technology in phones is advancing at an alarming rate also, with some of the best phones offering up to 10 mega pixels and some even now provide optical zoom. You can even browse the internet as easily as you would do on our home computer, and in fact the number of people using their phones to surf is increasing by around 100% each year.

Many people have argued that a phone will never be able to match the benefits of a large screen that home computers and televisions provide. However, Nokia have recently released a phone with an incorporated projector built in that can provide a screen size of up to 50 inches. It seems like it’s out with home entertainment units and cable ties, and in with nana processers and micro circuit breakers, powering some of the most power bits of kit the world has ever seen.

The first time I lost my valuable mobile was due to too many beers on a boys night out. I’d been using my phone while on my homeward journey in a taxi and I must have left it on the back seat of the cab. The following morning, when I realized what had happened, I called the cab firm only to hear that my phone had not been found. I suddenly became aware of how much of my life was stored on that little device.

I vowed that I would be far more careful in future and get myself some mobile phone insurance to cover the cost of replacement. But the expense was the last of my concerns as I’d lost a whole load of telephone numbers and contact details that were only stored on my phone and nowhere else.

We’re all guilty of doing it. When we run into an old friend or make a new contact we immediately enter their contact details into our mobile phones and often don’t even think about transfering those details to an address book.

I then went and lost my replacement phone on another night out, but this time I wasn’t drunk. I was convinced that a pickpocket had lifted my mobile from my pocket in the nightclub. The truth is that I probably dropped it on the floor when removing cash to pay for drinks at the bar. I told the club staff but my new phone never turned up.

Stupidly, I hadn’t taken out the mobile phone insurance policy that I’d intended to. But due to the pain caused by my previous loss I had at least made note of many of the contact details stored on the phone.

Is there a moral to this tale? Maybe a small one. But I strongly suggest that you backup all of your telephone contact details and maybe get yourself some insurance to cover the cost of a replacement.