GLOBAL – Just over a week ago we asked you to help build a (hypothetical) phone for the next billion by selecting from a list of features to create an affordable, yet useful device that might be the first mobile phone for people in growth markets. We’ve totted up the results. So let’s take a look at what you picked.

Seeing as we asked for your four most wanted features in our list of ten, we’re going to take you through the top four results, finishing with an image of the other findings for you to look through at your leisure.

With nearly one fifth of the total votes – just under 20 per cent – Long battery life made it to the top as your most-needed feature in a phone for the next billion. We’re really not surprised by this result, as it’s vital to keep mobile devices powered in places where electricity is scarce or unreliable.

Internet access was second on your list with over 11 per cent, showing that it’s really important in this day and age to be able to access information and to connect to the rest of the world – something that we all take for granted. Allowing the next billion to join the Net can only be a good thing, opening up all sorts of possibilites for them. In today’s market, data can still be a very expensive option, though. So it’s possibly worth pointing out that Ovi Life Tools uses SMS messaging in conjunction with a client app to offer timely information and a rich user experience, without the expense of data tariffs.

With around nine and a half per cent, is Robustness. Owning a phone in an environment that can be inhospitable at times, can mean you’re phone doesn’t have a long life-span. Now if that phone was tough, sturdy and able to withstand stressful events such as high temperatures or being dropped on rough terrain, would mean you’ve not got to replace your phone as often.

Coming fourth, is Handset cost with a little over eight per cent. It’s all very well having all these  features, but it means nothing if people can’t afford it. For some people, buying a mobile phone could mean spending several months wages for even the cheapest of handsets. Wouldn’t it be great if these devices were cheap enough to not be such a strain on their wallets?

So it seems the next billion phone should be a long-lasting, Internet-accessing, robust, cheap device. I agree. And we hope to see what these next billion phones will look like in the near future.