KDDI’s au Infobar is co-developed by HTC. It features a Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 , 1GB of RAM, 4.7-inch 720p display, 16GB of storage, microSD slot, 2,100mAh battery, LTE radio (800/1500) and Android 4.1. The phone also supports both CDMA2000 800/2100 and WCDMA 850/1900/2100, making it a global phone. It has a 8-megapixel main imager (with F2.0 lens) and 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera that take advantage of HTC’s ImageSense chip for speedy burst shots. Likewise, you’ll find Beats Audio built into the system. As per typical Japanese mobile phone, the usual NFC (with Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet), 1seg TV tuner and infrared are also packed inside the 9.7mm-thick, 147g-heavy waterproof (IPX5 and IPX7) and dustproof (IP5X) body.

But look at the home screen design and the above spec. Why can’t HTC have already released something like this? Dust proof and waterproof too, like the new Sony Xperia Z.

As phones become more Internet based and media devices, with larger and larger screens, are the days of phone calls coming to an end.

Unlikely since there are still many reasons to call over other mediums. But the usage is rapidly dropping. I myself have a mobile contract that focuses on data. I have an all you can eat data allowance, along with calls and texts. But as the years have moved on, the actual calls is diminishing.

As more and more people switch away from their dumb phones and move to a phone that uses the Internet, are we moving to an era when the mobile networks will freeze under the weight of data as opposed to phone calls. I think we will see a slow down of data speeds in the UK, and also a rise in data costs. The volume of traffic requirements is just growing faster than the system can cope.

So here’s some irony. The network overloads and freezes your data. Back then to making a good old fashioned phone call.