"Will our smartphones look different in 2012?," asks Jared Newman on PC World. Well he's looked at the technology areas that are improving, and what carriers, manufacturers, and start-ups are working on, and came up with a list of thing to look for in the class of 2012.

It is a very US focused list (there's a whole section discussing LTE and the fine details of the "Contract-Free" wars to sell mobiles to end users), but there's some nuggets here for the rest of the world, including the strange prediction of smartphones running Quad Core processors, 720p HD displays and augmented reality all playing a part in this mythical phone.

Of course, as a famous Scotsman once said, you can't change the laws of physics... Newman can't see any improvement on battery tech in 2012! Given everything else he's lumbered on his dream handset, I hope he's happy with a three hour battery life!