The rectangular slab of our smartphones has been for the last decade and some, the absolute dominant means of communication, creation and consumption for most of humankind.
And nothing lasts forever and I understand that these companies are terrified of missing the next thing.
Don’t forget though that when humans settle on the perfect form, we tend to keep it…books are still a thing 5 centuries on.
Now look both at market success and simply around you, in your homes, streets , offices , rich and poor countries .
People use smartphones.
I also don’t see people clamoring for anything else (if anything, the debate is rather about stale if not outright socially dangerous software rather than hardware (see: social networks) and whether AI is going to change everything or just be another relatively limited tool for us to use…most likely the later when the hype has finally died down).
But maybe the people are wrong.
So let’s see how they react to actual market proposals:
- AI pendants : a bust
- VR headsets : at best a niche
- MR headsets : a niche, if that
- AR headsets : a tiny niche
- Foldables : a niche and maybe a limited success. Though you will note that being able to turn a big phone into a fragile small tablet for over 2K USD is hardly paradigm shifting.
I mean, sure, History tells us that someday, something will replace the smartphone.
But I’m pretty it won’t be any of those half baked, fundamentally compromised gadgets.
This is not the future. This is just venture capitalists and tech CEOs burning their ill gotten (*) gains at the altar of their vanities.
(*) exemple : Zuckerberg “earning” billions on scam ads on his social networks and blowing it all on metaverse and AI friends bs.
