Future of smartphones: Is it true that smartphones will soon be gone?

We are used to the fact that smartphones exist. It feels like they have been with us for a very long time: in general, it is generally accepted that the popularity of smart phones came in the early 2010s, approximately with the development of the iPhone.

For more than 10 years, smartphones have always been at hand and are getting better, with performance reaching the level of laptops and even surpassing them. Nevertheless, many analysts look to the future and build their forecasts, although it is clear to everyone that sooner or later there will be no smartphones.

But changes in society slow down this process. You will see: smartphones will not disappear in the coming years. Everything is very simple.

What will happen to smartphones in the future

The other day, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark talked about the future of technology. In his opinion, 6G networks will appear by 2030 and will greatly affect the development of technology and smartphones in particular. In his opinion, our gadgets will cease to be what they are at the moment: the device will cease to be the most popular interface.

Roughly speaking, Mr. Lundmark suggests that smartphone functions will migrate to other devices, such as AR headsets, indicating that metaverses and virtual reality are now developing. In his opinion, by that time it will be closely connected with real life.

It’s a pity, of course, to hear this, but so far the words of the head of Nokia have not been backed up by anything, and he speaks in the spirit of a science fiction writer ( and populist balabol ): they say that in a few years cars will fly, and we will eat from tubes like astronauts.

As you understand, none of the technologies has gone to the masses: unmanned vehicles carry people with grief in half and can drive independently only if there are markings and other favorable conditions, and smartphones … They are unsuccessfully complemented by various accessories. Complements, but does not replace.

How to replace a smartphone

Any device released to the market sooner or later gets the functions of a smartphone. Fitness bracelets, smartwatches, tablets – they all adopt the functions of calls, eSim, the ability to reply to a message, and more.

True, all this is terribly miserable and inconvenient: answering a call through a smart watch looks ridiculous, messages too, and their battery life leaves much to be desired. There are more serious developments, for example, smart glasses, but where are they? Xiaomi introduced them last autumn, but since then no news.

Google Glass was closed and has already been resurrected, and Apple is fueling interest with various insiders: according to rumors, the AR headset has already been introduced within the company and even created a new operating system for it, but the release will begin only in a year.

Yes, and the replacement of the smartphone at first will most likely look like a virtual reality helmet, and not like a sunscreen accessory. At the end of last year, insiders promised that Apple’s AR headset would work separately from the smartphone, but now we are gently hinting that this will happen in the (distant?) future. So, I won’t be surprised if the first versions will connect to the iPhone via a cable at all.

When smartphones disappear

Last year, I read an interesting forecast: smartphones will be gone somewhere by 2031, and AR will serve as a driver for development. For some reason, any expert considers it necessary to use this technology in his words, but does not seem to know what is happening with it.

For ordinary people, augmented reality means absolutely nothing; for more or less advanced people, it is associated with Apple and its numerous startups, bosom LiDAR and attempts to massively introduce augmented reality technology.

Games with AR gain popularity only on the wave of hype, and applications are of no practical importance: even the conditional “Ruler” in the iPhone counts inaccurately.

At the same time, experts note that flexible screens will not be needed for smartphones of the future. That is, everything that is now moving the industry is deceit and marking time, and users simply fell for the trick led by Bill Gates en masse: let me remind you that this year Samsung foldable smartphones can take 1% of the market, which in itself is an achievement for a newfangled chip.

There is no exact answer to what will happen after smartphones, and it is simply reckless to name the dates now: global crises, pandemics and other problems slow down technology, and it even plays into their hands.

Do you know why? Because any progress has its own ceiling, and the new is always the well-forgotten old. So, if there is a smartphone replacement, then only a folding phone. My vision is that by 2030, most of us will have a smartphone and tablet, not mindless AR glasses.

How do you see the future of smartphones? Share your opinion in the comment section.