LG is apparently planning to launch a futuristic smartphone next year, boasting a completely buttonless experience with always-on voice activation.

The smartphone market is advancing at a very rapid pace and the physical keyboard is already fading away in favor of all-touch smartphones. Continuing this trend, it seems that LG wants to ditch buttons altogether and unleash a voice-controlled smartphone.

According to a new GottaBeMobile report citing multiple sources, LG plans to launch a next-generation smartphone with always-on activation next year. Such technology will reportedly enable smartphones to respond only to the owner's voice and may require just a simple word such as "hello" to get things up and running.

While this is not an entirely new concept, voice activation that eliminates buttons and touches does pose a few challenges to device makers, particularly when it comes to battery efficiency (always-on has its demands) and separating background noise from actual voice commands.

According to GottaBeMobile's sources, LG's always-on technology will reportedly not boast the wide array of contexts Google and Apple offer with their respective voice services, but will focus on navigation. Users will be able to handle everything simply by speaking.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 800 processor is specifically designed to facilitate always-on voice activation and it will apparently play an essential role in LG's technology.

"Originally, we had thought that the feature [always-on voice capability] would be limited to select voice commands, like Google Now, but it seems that LG is tapping into the hardware feature to make its phones more adaptive."

In terms of battery efficiency, always-on can take its toll but Qualcomm reportedly assured vendors that its new Snapdragon 800 can handle the feature without having a negative impact on battery life, CNET reported.

The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU should reach smartphones later this year, which means it would be able to power LG's voice-activated gadget when it comes out next year. GottaBeMobile offers no exact timeframe for when LG would launch this smartphone.

Considering that the new Snapdragon 800 will most certainly make its way to other smartphones by other manufacturers, LG may not be the only device maker with plans to launch an always-on, voice-activated smartphone next year. So far, however, it's the first one to make headlines with such plans.