What’s the next step for smartphones?

Smartphones are offering an ever-growing array of features, everything from MP3 players to video cameras to full-functioning web browsing. But Canadians are still some time away from having a handheld wireless device that can truly do it all.

In fact, North America phones have yet to catch up to features that are already available in Japan and Europe, such as a wallet function that enables the phone to act as a credit card.

“I think it’ll come. It’s just a matter of each of the markets in the different regions being at different levels of maturity,” Tejas Rao, director of product technology at Nokia, said from Toronto.

Apple’s iPhone 3G garnered a lot of hype when it was launched in Canada in July. Its sleek touch screen and easy-to-use menu received positive reviews, as did its ability to display web pages the same way a desktop computer does.

But some questioned the iPhone’s two-megapixel camera — low resolution compared to some other models — as well as its lack of a video camera.

Nokia’s N95 8GB has a five-megapixel still camera, a video camera, and a video chat capability, but its web display and menu functions have been described by some as clunky.

Both phones are on the cutting edge in North America, but tech-savvy consumers are already thinking of more features they’d like to see.

“My form of communication is mostly text or a messaging program, so I’m waiting for something to come out for MSN (Messenger) on the iPhone,” said Rene Fourneaux, a 31-year-old officer worker in Winnipeg who purchased an iPhone shortly after its Canadian launch.

Smartphones in some overseas countries offer many features that aren’t available here. One common feature is an infrared connection that lets a user beam a message directly to another user nearby without going through an email or text server.

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