- The AI boom and increased connectivity have created room for more experimentation with phones.
- Innovation is moving from concepts to devices you can buy.
- It’s time to make gadgets weird again.
- This article is part of the 5G and Connectivity Playbook, a series that explores some of the most important technological innovations of our time.
Our smartphones have never been more powerful or boring.
But there’s also good news. It doesn’t have to be this way, and technology companies are starting to make a big push into what the future of mobile phones will look like.
With the hype around artificial intelligence and gradual improvements in connectivity, companies are not only experimenting with how things like generative AI can make our phones more interesting, but also how these gadgets in our pockets can make our phones more interesting. I began to question what I was supposed to look and feel like, and even whether I was supposed to. Doesn’t sit in your pocket at all.
Why should our phones be rectangular blocks? Why shouldn’t we wear them instead? Why do we need apps on our phones? Do we too? need screen?
This year’s Mobile World Congress took a hard look at the future of smartphones and how they connect. Companies have traditionally shown off weird and wacky concepts at trade shows like MWC and CES in Las Vegas, but this year it seems like some of those ideas are rapidly moving into reality.
Deutsche Telekom and Brain.ai demonstrated one such example at MWC: an app-less smartphone. Instead, users can interact with her AI assistant and do everything from sending text messages to friends to booking flight tickets. This is just an idea at this point, but it raises some interesting questions. Why assume future smartphones will have apps in the first place?
Other companies think we need to dream a little bigger. Take Humane’s AI Pin as an example. This is a wearable magnetic module that attaches to your clothing and recreates many of the tasks on your smartphone. It has a camera so you can see what’s going on around you, and you can project text and images onto your hand instead of a screen.
The device connects via LTE and has an AI-powered assistant built in, which attracted a large audience to see it in action on the MWC floor.
AI Pin is a touch-and-talk wearable.
The jury is still out on whether this buzz will translate into sales or good reviews. The pin won’t ship until April, and hands-on time with this gadget is limited to highly controlled demos. It also costs $700.
But the company is a well-funded company (its backers include OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Qualcomm) and is taking a new approach to smartphones.
There’s also the Rabbit R1, another AI-powered handheld device, but this one comes with a screen. Its creator states that it won’t replace your smartphone anytime soon – But if it’s successful, he thinks it might.
These devices have that potential because they ask a valid question: “What would a smartphone be like if it were a truly personal AI assistant?”
The answers will continue to emerge. Altman asked former Apple design chief Jony Ive to help build a new AI hardware device. reported by bloomberg. On the other hand, Meta Mark Zuckerberg said, I’m betting on augmented reality glasses becomes Major devices we will use in the future (though he doesn’t necessarily think we’ll make smartphones obsolete).
“With immersive computing, you become less dependent on your phone screen,” Carolina Milanesi, president of analyst firm Creative Strategies, told Business Insider.
“As we start thinking about different form factors like glasses and what we’re trying to do with meta and AR and XR, there’s definitely an opportunity to share the computing experience across different devices. “I do,” Milanesi said.
Some ideas are more conceptual. Take Lenovo’s wearable phone, for example, which bends around your wrist and uses AI to adapt to your clothing. Lenovo transparent laptop screenmay have been the biggest topic of discussion at this year’s MWC.
After speaking with Tom Butler, executive director of Lenovo’s laptop product line, I don’t think the company has good reason to think people will use transparent laptops, but if you don’t see it or It’s definitely a lot of fun to talk about.
“Sometimes we’re so ahead of the market that we introduce something like this and it sparks a conversation,” Butler said.
AI, app-free mobile phone concept on display at MWC show floor
Pau Varena/AFP
Many of these concepts remain what they are, that is, concepts, and perhaps some of them should be (which many of us would like to forget) will.i.am‘s disastrous Pulse smartwatch likely includes: will.i.am).
but The smartphone industry is in a slumpAnd “we need to reinvigorate the upgrade cycle,” Milanesi told BI. The collision of AI, 5G, and edge computing could be the perfect element for companies to try out new ideas, and yes, they can sometimes reap some dividends. strange.
It may not be a see-through display. But it could be something we wear or something that doesn’t look like a rectangle covered in glass. As Lenovo’s Butler said, sometimes it’s just starting a conversation.