The Beginning of the End of Smartphones

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We’re in a mobile first world, and smartphones have taken over as the computing platform of choice. But the smartphone shouldn’t get too comfortable, as emerging trends are pointing to a future where the smartphone won’t be a necessary component of mobile computing.

During the first half of 2014, we’ve seen announcements and demos of many new and exciting innovations in the world of smartphones. At WWDC, Apple showed off the new iOS 7, Google I/O displayed the continuing evolution of Android, and even Amazon joined in the game with the release of their innovative Fire phone.

Among some of the interesting capabilities displayed by these devices were increased home management, fitness tracking tools, and new ways to view and control the device interface. But if one looks at some of the emerging trends in computing, from wearables to cloud to the Internet of Things, you can see a future where there really isn’t much of a need to walk around with a small phone/computer in your pocket.

To start things off, at their June World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple didn’t show much in the way of hardware but they did announce the capabilities of the next versions of their iOS and OSX operating systems. Along with features to make their smartphone/tablet OS work better with their desktop OS, Apple included many new features that one expects from a smartphone (better Siri controls, improved file sharing) but most of the key new capabilities were focused on developers. This was especially true of their new Swift language, which offers developers of iOS apps many new capabilities to ease the development process.

Shortly after the Apple conference, in mid-June Amazon released their long awaited Fire Phone. While in many ways a standard Android based smartphone, the Fire Phone does have a couple of unique innovations. As one would expect from an Amazon device, shopping is a key feature of this phone, centered on the new Firefly capability, which makes it possible to buy anything that you can take a picture of. More interesting was the Dynamic Perspective feature, a truly new and unique capability that uses four front facing cameras to enable new tilt and turn interface control options and to provide unique viewing experiences of the screen from different angles.

Finishing up June was the Google I/O conference, where the company unveiled a host of mobile platforms and tools, including a preview of the upcoming version of Android. Along with new features such as notifications which can be acted on within apps or the lock screen, the next version of Android will feature a new interface (which will also be used across all Google apps and devices) called material design. With this interface, it is possible for developers to integrate depth of field (or at least mimic depth of field) into their application interface.

All of these new smartphone announcements were interesting, and are probably enough to have the gadget heads lining up to upgrade their devices when they come out. But it was another focus of both WWDC and Google I/O that could be pointing to the future of mobile computing.

Wearable computing (as in smart watches, fitness devices and glasses) was much discussed at these shows, along with related topics like the Internet of Things and the smart home. But more interesting was the move to consistent interfaces and experiences wherever a user is. Apple demoed interface consistency across all devices, even desktops and laptops. And Google discussed the concept of the mobile OS being contextually aware, so that if you are using an Android phone, watch, auto, etc., your apps, data and persona will travel with you as you move through your real-world environments.

To me this points to the true future of mobile computing, where the device doesn’t matter at all. A world in which, no matter where you are, your data and information is accessible from any device, screen or interface.

Think about this scenario. You get up in the morning and, instead of reaching for a smartphone, you have a small token that has your data information and houses your ability to access it. This could be a watch, a ring, a pair of glasses, necklace, belt buckle, key fob, it really doesn’t matter (could even be a subcutaneous chip). In the car, the mobile token interfaces with the automotive system, which starts to read your messages, news, whatever you need. On the train, you sync to the seat back screen and keyboard, where you can securely check mail, social networks and even get work done. When the token receives an incoming call, it sends it to your voice enabled system of choice (glasses, headset, tooth-embedded voice system). And when you get to work, it syncs to your desktop station, where you can get serious work done.

In this world, you don’t really need to carry around even the relatively small smartphone device. The token is your entire computing world (or at least the key to accessing that world in the cloud). Maybe you’d carry some small device for viewing videos or other display intensive content, though you may be using some future, improved version of Google Glass, or maybe a folded flexible screen. With new advances in gesture, voice and other alternative input systems, you wouldn’t even need to have any kind of keyboard.

Of course, this isn’t going to happen tomorrow, though many of the technologies needed to make this a reality already exist. And there will be very serious questions about security, privacy and continuous access that will need to be answered before the general public becomes comfortable with this kind of mobile system.

But it is entirely conceivable. So enjoy the latest round of cool new smartphones. They may not be around all that long.

A version of this article was originally published at TechPro Essentials