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dkersten

macrumors 6502a
Nov 5, 2010
589
2
Sounds like improvements of current technology. Other than connecting the phone in the brain, what else is there?

It is improvements on current tech but it will allow us to interact with the things around us in a completely different way. If you haven't yet, watch the video. I think we'll be living in that world in a decade or so. Your smartphone will be the hub. It's not a revolution in technology but a revolution in how we interact with it.
 

ChristianVirtual

macrumors 601
May 10, 2010
4,122
282
日本
One future item could be flexible screens that convert phones to tablets.

Samsung just showed off a couple of cool concept phones in the following video. I'm in love with the first one. Sign me up!

YouTube: video

That was nice; I like the blended screen over the edge of the mobile or messages. Nice use of wasted space. Touch sensitive and with dynamic UI.
Must be an exciting job to work in those labs.
 

Liquorpuki

macrumors 68020
Jun 18, 2009
2,286
8
City of Angels
Very original....

funny-iphone-5-bruce-lee.jpg
 

Spungoflex

macrumors 6502
Oct 30, 2012
388
488

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_cardiac_pacemaker

The only reason you don't appreciate it is because it's been around for over 5 decades.

----------

One future item could be flexible screens that convert phones to tablets.

Samsung just showed off a couple of cool concept phones in the following video. I'm in love with the first one. Sign me up!

YouTube: video

Samsung never fails to push the interracial romance angle. Someone who works there has a pretty major cuckold fetish.
 

b166er

macrumors 68020
Apr 17, 2010
2,062
18
Philly
I'm not expecting any revolutionary new features in the next couple years. The things we have now will keep getting better for sure. The thing I am most excited for is over the air charging, and who knows when we will see that.

What comes after touchscreens?' I really don't have an answer to that.
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
Pretty much hit a plateau yeah. Smartphones no longer need to improve much IMO. What will really improve the experience is other devices working with our smartphones.. like the pebble watch, wifi-controllable appliances, lights, etc.

Like someone said earlier I think flexible devices will be the next big thing.
 

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
Pretty much hit a plateau yeah. Smartphones no longer need to improve much IMO. What will really improve the experience is other devices working with our smartphones.. like the pebble watch, wifi-controllable appliances, lights, etc.

Like someone said earlier I think flexible devices will be the next big thing.

Your imagination is pretty limited. There is plenty of things that can be improved upon in current smartphones.
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
Your imagination is pretty limited. There is plenty of things that can be improved upon in current smartphones.

None of which I give two hoots about :)

My imagination isn't limited, I just don't need anything new.

Note: I don't class improvements to battery technology, screen, processor etc. as new.
 

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
None of which I give two hoots about :)

My imagination isn't limited, I just don't need anything new.

Note: I don't class improvements to battery technology, screen, processor etc. as new.

Geez, all you have left is air. You are absurd.
 

rans0m00

macrumors 6502
Jun 21, 2010
317
0
I feel they have plateaued... The only thing I could use my phone for that I don't is a media server or a gaming platform. As far goes daily use on the hardware side it does everything I need it to do almost instantly. I get on average two days per charge on my note2... So increased battery life. If I only had to charge if once a week it would be cooler.
 

Cod3rror

macrumors 68000
Apr 18, 2010
1,809
151
Heh, this is an interesting topic,

OP, to answer your question, it is not the technology and smartphones that plateaued, it is the user requirements that have plateaued.

The touchscreen smartphone is pretty much set now, yes, and it's not going away anytime soon, don't expect any revolutions, I don't know what can be invented in 20 years that will replace this, but as it is now, the smartphone seems to be the final stage of a personal tech evolution.

PC -> Laptop -> Tablet -> Mobile Smartdevice

But, the technology itself is advancing at an incredible pace. Consider this, Kingston recently announced 512GB and 1TB flash drives, let that sink in, 1TB flash drive! It's going to be expensive at first, yes, but in a few years, you'll be able to pick it up for cheap from your local supermarket.

And technology is not advancing in one particular direction but in all directions, smartphones have triggered this. Before, you had a PC and a laptop that were getting faster, faster CPU, GPU, more RAM, etc... now, when you release a device it has to have all kinds of sensors in it, accelerometer, gyro, magnetometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, G-sensor, barometer, touchscreen, GPS, it has to have a 3G/4G for always online connection and of course the cameras/mics have to be there as well.

And all the above is advancing quite fast. Wi-Fi AC is practically here, soon smartphones will support USB 3.0, have you heard of lZat? It's supposed to be much more precise than GPS and is aimed to replace it. There are talks of touch sensors that recognize it's owner's touch/finger prints, smell sensors...

Smartphones have also trigger the competition for miniaturization and efficiency.

Everything is becoming interconnected and smart, Samsung announced smart fridges FFS. Smart cars that can park themselves that can connect to and interact with your phones, smart home appliances that can interact with each other and again, your smartphone.

The only thing that has plateaued is battery technology. And manufacturers for some reason still opt not to use more than 16 or 32GB of internal storage in Android phones, when there are 128GB chips being mass manufactured by Samsung now.



However, this all comes down to one question... do I really need all this ****? The answer for most people is, NO!

Take CES 2013, Ultra HD TVs, did anybody ask for them? People were very happy with Full HD, hell most were happy with 720p TVs.

1080p screens on Android smartphones, did consumers ask for that? Nobody needed that, nobody is going to look at their phones under a microscope.

Soon, smartphones will record video in Ultra HD resolution, but who needs that? Do you need your smartphone to record in UHD?



I'm on an iPhone 3GS and I see absolutely no reason to upgrade to iPhone 5. Yes, everything is faster but it really offers nothing that I require over 3GS. The camera is good, but, again it's not good enough to warrant an upgrade, it still cannot match Nokia N8's from 2010.



Now that WP8 is on the same kernel and (largely) the same API as Windows 8, I think the next version of WP and Windows Metro will be much closer together. As in you can dock your phone to your desk and use your touchscreen monitor, mouse, and keyboard, but run everything off of your phone.

Give it 2 years. Three if we're unlucky.

This is what I expect to happen next,

In a few years smartphone power will reach the point where it will easily be able to run a desktop OS and it'll replace your laptops, tablets, and your PC as your main device. You'll dock it, into a dock that will have a mouse, keyboard and a monitor hooked up to it and a full desktop OS will open, once you're ready to go, you'll take it from the dock and a mobile UI will kick in.

SIRI and Google Now will probably evolve be like your real assistant, you won't even have to touch your phone to interact with them.

There are rumours going around that the next Android will include a "desktop mode" like you described above.

Apple will probably come up with something like "iOSX" hybrid OS in the future too, unless they want to be left behind.
 

Pompiliu

macrumors 6502a
Apr 22, 2012
544
0
And when will Thinner & Lighter stop being a marketing tool ? How frigging thin and light do we need our phones to be ? Do you want a paper thin phone, light as a feather ? I don't. I'll take thicker with a battery that lasts a week, over credit card thin smartphone.
I want thinner with a battery that last 1-2 days.
I don't live in the woods like you.
:rolleyes:
 

MadeTheSwitch

macrumors 65816
Apr 20, 2009
1,193
15,781
It's true that we are in a settling in period, however that does not mean there is not more room for innovation. For instance, I see things moving into two areas: One, your phone truly becoming your PC, as the Ubuntu phone is showing. And secondly I think we will finally see home automation start becoming more mainstream instead of the niche thing it has always been.

http://www.zdnet.com/top-5-reasons-the-ubuntu-linux-phone-might-make-it-7000009721/
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
You. You think that smartphone parts can't be greatly improved.

Didn't say that, I just said that I don't class improving existing components as something new.

Longer battery life is useful but it's not new.
Faster processor is useful but it's not new.

A flexible device WILL be new when one is finally released.
 

b166er

macrumors 68020
Apr 17, 2010
2,062
18
Philly
The smartphone market matured a lot faster than the computer market did, but take a look at computers being released today. They don't really offer anything new, just improvements on the existing stuff. Look at the new iMac- it's a great computer, but the only thing remotely new about it is the fusion drive, which itself is kind of just a twist on two existing kinds of hard drives. Other than that there is no big game changer on the new Macs, or any other desktops out there. For a long time the goal was to squeeze all that power in to a laptop, which has now been standard for a while. And now the goal is to squeeze all that power in to a smartphone, which has pretty much been accomplished.

The idea of a phone doubling as your desktop is really cool, I think some companies will take it a step further and not even require you to dock the phone. Your desk has a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. You walk up to it with the phone in your pocket and everything lights up, ready to go. When you leave everything saves to your phone and then the peripherals go into standby again. Right now most smartphones can do the tasks that the average computer user needs. If that improves and now your phone is capable of doing serious video/image editing and other intense tasks then the phones will be able to please the pc power users. Add that to over the air charging and you have something cooler and more powerful than the computers you even used to see on star trek.

Flexible displays are really cool- but I'm not seeing what the application is just yet. Obviously they will be more durable, which is great for children and clumsy people. I've never cracked a screen on any device though and I think I am pretty rough on my gadgets.

----------

One future item could be flexible screens that convert phones to tablets.

Samsung just showed off a couple of cool concept phones in the following video. I'm in love with the first one. Sign me up!

YouTube: video

This is a really cool concept, but is Samsung really using the "sex sells" angle to promote a device that doesn't even exist yet? Buy our stuff and get hot girls number!
 

kdarling

macrumors P6
This is a really cool concept, but is Samsung really using the "sex sells" angle to promote a device that doesn't even exist yet? Buy our stuff and get hot girls number!

Samsung seems to like over-the-top parodies.

That's why they show exaggerated fanboy behavior in their ads (e.g. head exploding over the jack location).

In this case, they're poking fun at the pseudo-techie (guy with ridiculously lighted tablet) and gadgets-get-girl (whoa! that's cool - twice) stereotypes.

I kind of like their sense of humor. It's a bit irreverent.
 

Sedrick

macrumors 68030
Nov 10, 2010
2,596
26
One future item could be flexible screens that convert phones to tablets.

Samsung just showed off a couple of cool concept phones in the following video. I'm in love with the first one. Sign me up!

YouTube: video
Sweet!

And something tells me Apple has a whole team working on how to get another row of icons on the screen. :cool:
 

Awakener

macrumors 6502
Mar 28, 2011
345
0
It is improvements on current tech but it will allow us to interact with the things around us in a completely different way. If you haven't yet, watch the video. I think we'll be living in that world in a decade or so. Your smartphone will be the hub. It's not a revolution in technology but a revolution in how we interact with it.

Meh. Just a flexible screen, which will will be convenient and have its uses, a "revolution in how we interact with it" is an overstatement. Besides the world is not becoming a better place as we interact with technology.
 
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