It’s 2030 and over the past 20 or so years, your mobile phone (if that’s what we still call it) has replaced your wallet, keys and computer, becoming the single most important piece of gadgetry you own.
Scary or exciting? Well, convergence is all around us and has been for a number of years, but what will the next couple of decades hold for the mobile industry. Let’s take a look…
1. Cloud
There’s been a lot of buzz about cloud computing over the years. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it offers a secure place for applications and data to be accessed from any network device, whether it’s a phone, laptop or PC. Given the situation, that means you’ll be able to access your important work documents while out of the office and in front of almost any device.
2. Flexible Screens
The ability to bend and flex your phone is a very exciting prospect – see the Nokia Morph and the Nokia 888 concept phones.
3. Projectors
It has been suggested that the integration of projectors on mobile phones may well coincide with the downtrend of laptops. How does this work? Well, with mobile phones approaching laptop-esque processing power, all that’s missing from your smartphone is a larger screen to view it on. Enter the projector…
4. 4G & 5G
We are about to see a rafter of 4G phones hit the market offering faster and more stable connections which supersede that of 3G. We may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit here but it’s predicted that by 2020 we’ll be seeing 5G!
5. NFC
Near field communication. There are some seriously cool uses of NFC for social networking. Imagine just tapping your phone on another mobile to make a mobile payment, or to share a file or business card!
6. The death of the Digital Camera & SLR’s
The experience of taking a photo on your mobile phone has changed dramatically. You just have to look at our evolution of the camera phone post to see how far we’ve come. The question is, in the ten years time, will there be the need for a low/mid-range digital camera when your phone can do just as good a job?
Then there’s the Digital SLR, a contentious point perhaps but with some of the fantastic new camera accessories available (just check our Nokia N8 macro post) will future high-power lenses be just as good on a mobile phone camera, as they are on the real thing?
7. Wireless technology
It’s not just us who can’t wait for the day when wireless technology supersedes that of the tangled wired charger. We’re definitely counting down the hours. The technology is there in the form of charging mats, but it’s not quite mass market yet.
8. Sensory focus
You touch a device, you hear the caller and you see the display – but what about smell and taste? It may sound odd but mobile technology doesn’t think so. Take the Nokia Morph concept again, which can detect specific chemical compounds in the air to tell you if something is safe to consume.
9. Location, location, location
The likes of foursquare have meant that it’s easier to see where people are at any given time (on the basis they check-in) and software like that of Nokia Find & Connect, which we featured a couple of months ago, are certainly progressing the market.
10. Green
One trends for certain, the future of mobile phones is most definitely green. Nokia are a good example of leading the way in environmentally friendly practices with 100% of packaging being fully recyclable and 26 of the top 30 green phones being Nokia!
Scary or exciting? Well, convergence is all around us and has been for a number of years, but what will the next couple of decades hold for the mobile industry. Let’s take a look…
1. Cloud
There’s been a lot of buzz about cloud computing over the years. For those of you who aren’t familiar, it offers a secure place for applications and data to be accessed from any network device, whether it’s a phone, laptop or PC. Given the situation, that means you’ll be able to access your important work documents while out of the office and in front of almost any device.
2. Flexible Screens
The ability to bend and flex your phone is a very exciting prospect – see the Nokia Morph and the Nokia 888 concept phones.
3. Projectors
It has been suggested that the integration of projectors on mobile phones may well coincide with the downtrend of laptops. How does this work? Well, with mobile phones approaching laptop-esque processing power, all that’s missing from your smartphone is a larger screen to view it on. Enter the projector…
4. 4G & 5G
We are about to see a rafter of 4G phones hit the market offering faster and more stable connections which supersede that of 3G. We may be getting ahead of ourselves a bit here but it’s predicted that by 2020 we’ll be seeing 5G!
5. NFC
Near field communication. There are some seriously cool uses of NFC for social networking. Imagine just tapping your phone on another mobile to make a mobile payment, or to share a file or business card!
6. The death of the Digital Camera & SLR’s
The experience of taking a photo on your mobile phone has changed dramatically. You just have to look at our evolution of the camera phone post to see how far we’ve come. The question is, in the ten years time, will there be the need for a low/mid-range digital camera when your phone can do just as good a job?
Then there’s the Digital SLR, a contentious point perhaps but with some of the fantastic new camera accessories available (just check our Nokia N8 macro post) will future high-power lenses be just as good on a mobile phone camera, as they are on the real thing?
7. Wireless technology
It’s not just us who can’t wait for the day when wireless technology supersedes that of the tangled wired charger. We’re definitely counting down the hours. The technology is there in the form of charging mats, but it’s not quite mass market yet.
8. Sensory focus
You touch a device, you hear the caller and you see the display – but what about smell and taste? It may sound odd but mobile technology doesn’t think so. Take the Nokia Morph concept again, which can detect specific chemical compounds in the air to tell you if something is safe to consume.
9. Location, location, location
The likes of foursquare have meant that it’s easier to see where people are at any given time (on the basis they check-in) and software like that of Nokia Find & Connect, which we featured a couple of months ago, are certainly progressing the market.
10. Green
One trends for certain, the future of mobile phones is most definitely green. Nokia are a good example of leading the way in environmentally friendly practices with 100% of packaging being fully recyclable and 26 of the top 30 green phones being Nokia!
Comments
Post a Comment