Hardware: one of the big things that lets an Android smartphone down is mounting it to the bike, and you can understand why. Why? Because the market is small and the cost of tooling up for the huge and rapidly changing range of phones is massive. Look at the range of designs, all different sizes, thicknesses, with buttons and sockets in all different places. This is why decent, ruggedized cases and mounts are rare, and we're left to bodge together something from a soft bag, or roughly sized box, with a flexible, badly reflective over-screen, probably designed for city-centre cyclists rather than desert-riding bikers.

So even if Casio, or Samsung or whoever come up with a suitably rugged phone (which by the way you'll probably pay several hundred pounds/dollars for as the market is so small cellphone companies won't subsidise the cost) you still have to attach it to your bike. And you have to know it will stay there, with power running into it, rain or shine, day in day out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an Android smartphone fan, I love their versatility, the wealth of constantly evolving software, the fact that I can have one device to do all things, reasonably well, and that I don't have to pay several hundred pounds for a dedicated device the benefits of which I may only rarely see.

But, as a serious tool for the serious adventurer, it think they have a way to go, and I think until someone designs a decent, waterproof, secure, easy to use mounting system, they will always be second best.

Maybe Garmin should make smartphones?

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