The New York Times has a good article that describes how various handset manufacturers are spending time to understand consumers trends for creating new mobile phones. LG, Nokia and others are mentioned and some of the ideas they come up are based on real world observations of how people actually use their phones. One of the points the author mentions is how most technology-savvy consumers buy new handsets every 9 months, compared to 18 months a few years ago. It's easy to see how the success of the Apple iPhone has changed the perceptions for consumers of what a mobile phone can be and it will be interesting to see what handset manufacturers come up with in the future.