Recently a friend of mine was speaking about a new smartphone and mentioned that the phone did not have an Operating System. Today, when probably even refrigerators have some sort of an operating system, it is funny to think that a device like a modern smartphone would not have one [Operating System].

It is no more a secret that the world is moving to a single device model. Instead of carrying an MP3 player, digital camera, mobile phone, pocket computer, portable gaming system and god knows how many other devices, we'll be carrying only one. And I am scared to call it a mobile phone.

I firmly believe that specialized devices are far more powerful than universal or as many people like to call them all-in-one devices. But being able to have full functionality in a single device is such a great thing that it creates a viable business model.

Highly functional future mobile phones will focus on four main functions: gaming, photo & video capturing, information access (web, e-mail, instant messaging, GPS, etc) and multimedia playback. While these functions are present in existing devices, the quality of the functionality is quite limited. For instance, even the most advanced devices like Nokia's N95 cannot deliver the saming gaming experience as say Sony PSP does and while modern phones boast 5 Mega Pixel and better cameras, a high end digital camera easily beats the quality of the pictures shot.

Therefore, the future efforts of device manufacturers will be applied to integrating the same level of experience in universal devices as the specialized devices deliver. Examples? There are many.

Recently Sony Ericsson's gaming guru Peter Ahnegard has revealed that the company will offer a PlayStation branded phone. This does not mean that the phone will support actual PlayStation games but rather will deliver a PlayStation like gaming experience. According to Ahnegard the device shall hit the market before Christmas but of which here he has not noted.

Nokia is building mobile phones that shall deliver the same level of music and multimedia experience as high end MP3 and media players do.

Finally, it must be noted that constant increase in mobile network speed will allow manufacturers to produce more and more sophisticated devices.

Welcome to the world of a single device.