Mobile scratch-proof glass, and the road ahead

I have recently moved from a vanilla-Nokia-phone to some sort of a smart phone. My new Nokia N73 is pretty smart. One thing that constantly worries me, to the extent that I was thinking of not using this phone is the delicateness of this phone. This is a very nice phone, however the screen is so delicate, and it’s so costly that I can’t use it the way I used to use my old phone. I used to throw my old phone on my desk, on my car seat, treated it pretty badly – and it worked GREAT. However, the N73, with a 3.2 megapizels Carl Ziess lens, cannot be thrown around, with it’s delicate screen I can’t even keep my keys or coins in the same pocket I keep my phone.

I interestingly I see Judi Sohn concerned about iPhone:

there is no way I’m buying a glass-covered cell phone for $500 without accidental protection or some assurance that this thing can take everyday bumps and bruises without a problem. I want to use this thing…not display it on my wall for goodness sakes.

I also see iPhone addressing this problem by making a scratch proof glass. I wonder why Nokia doesn't make scratch proof glass? Is it because they want people to throw away their phone after a few months of usage and buy the latest models?

I am wondering what are the other major mobile innovations I am going to see in the next 12 months?

India is 4th largest in mobile web access

ContentSutra reports:

The number of people entering Cyberspace via their cellphones has more than doubled in India in the past year, making the country home to the fourth largest population—behind the U.K., the U.S. and South Africa—browsing the Internet through mobile handsets, according to a study reported by the PTI.

I have to tell that I have "converted" after purchasing my Nokia N73. This is a superb machine, which I have fallen in love with. What I am amazed about is the GPRS speed and the ease of web-surfing. I can get my company email, Yahoo!Mail and Gmail all on this device, and pretty quickly. The speed is great, and the UI is great. This phone has an amazing history feature, where is displays miniaturized versions of the pages that I visited in the past - very cool feature.

I watched a video on this phone, with headphones - and thats Amazing - clarity, quality and speed. I have to agree that very soon people will actually watch TV and movies of their phones. That's your own personal space; no more fighting for the remote - and with equal or better video and sound quality.

To top it, it takes great pictures and videos.

BTW - You can find a good review of N73 here.

You can't get better than this, in the given cost - at least for the next week :-)