Strategy Analytics has released a report identifying 10 key trends expected to emerge in the mobile handset industry over the decade. Important developments will include revolutionary designs and more intuitive user-interfaces.

Neil Mawston, associate director at Strategy Analytics, explained in a statement, “Such new form factors as the transformer and roll-able displays will revolutionize media phone design. By 2018, every handset will effectively be a smartphone, with a wide screen, sizeable keyboard and dense battery.”

Strategy Analytics also predict that within the next 10 years consumers will be able to design, purchase, update and repair their mobile phones online. The company also reported that multiradio chipsets will be the norm, with most handsets containing an array of WAN, MAN, LAN and PAN radios.

Chris Ambrosio, director at Strategy Analytics, added: “These advanced designs and technologies will offer rich rewards to companies that own the intellectual property rights (IPR). In an increasingly crowded marketplace, where copycat products can appear overnight, having a large, defensible IPR portfolio will be more important than ever.”