Cell phone usability isn't all that it's cracked up to be, and BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl is hoping Apple will fix that for us. He said "Basically I'm looking for Apple to fulfill all those many unfulfilled promises that the wireless phone manufacturers like Motorola and Nokia , Samsung and Sony Ericsson have failed to deliver. Because if not Apple, then who?"

Here's what Mr. Hesseldahl would like to see:

• Music Downloads Songs purchased through an iPhone would likely cost more, but it gives consumers an additional way to buy their music.
• Sharing Music Even though Steve Jobs dismissed the hobbled music sharing system in Microsoft's Zune, but a system like iTunes music sharing could be a hit.
• iTunes Ringtones Ringtones culled from your iTunes playlist, and how about hold music, too?
• Portable iApps He states "The phone should sync not only with iTunes but, for Mac users, iPhoto, iCal, Address Book, and Mail, thus making photos, calendars, and e-mail and contact lists routinely portable."
• Photos and Video Include a built-in iSight camera to shoot video and pictures - and let iMovie import your iPhone video clips.
• Super Headphones Not just super headphones, but super Bluetooth headphones.
• Data Storage The iPod works in disk mode, let the iPhone do the same. If you like, let your phone encrypt files for security, too.

As icing on the cake, Mr. Hesseldahl also wants Apple to make the iPhone developer-friendly so we can add additional programs. "Apple should let developers create their own mini applications on the iPhone the way they do on the Mac. Apple developers are constantly devising fascinating little hacks that always make the day-to-day scut work of personal computing more interesting."

Hopes are certainly riding high for an Apple cell phone announcement at Macworld 2007 in January. If Apple does release a phone, hopefully it will have the right balance of features and usability that we expect from Cupertino.