When I first saw the Lumia 920, I was quite sold out on it, and I thought -this could well be the future of smartphones- But after a little over 5 years later, things have quite changed, and I've found that my assumption on that 2012 device might have suffered a bit of myopia- for two reasons - It's an obvious fact that the smartphone industry moved too fast for the Lumia brand, and it never caught up. The other reason seems more ominous and precursory -it does seem that smartphones AREN'T the future- This implies that they serve the purpose of "passing time"; time until a far more "suitable" and "efficient" technology becomes mainstream. Perhaps, this undoubtedly disturbing notion is the reason that the journey of the smartphone development is highlighted and told.

This is the Smartphone Story, the highs, lows and all; But why tell it now? It is a story that could just as well be told now as any other time, only that, now, it serves to predict the things to happen in times to come (likely soon) when the Smartphone era might be facing a lamentable end.

The Smartphone is such a beautiful thing. An epitome of the harmonious fusion of industrial engineering, telecommunications, and ICT. It was a device that broke the limits of what information we have access to and how we can access these information. It's a pocket sized computer that can do lots of things we want it to. Its existence has been predicted as far back as the late 20th century; Predictors highlighting it's small size and its progressive potential of increasing the amount of things we could really do and the amount of information we have access to, and these predictions have turned out to be very true; The smartphone rapidly became a very powerful computer that can be carried around in a form factor that is so disproportionate to its performance, and it revolutionised the way we interact with data and information. However, there are precursors to the tale of the smartphone which we can find in the predictions that came before the smartphone era: These predictions have been largely accurate and true, but it seems that these predictions also fortold conditions that would lead to the decline of that era. Predictors did say that smartphone would progressively carry out tasks we want it to with increasing efficiency, and this implies that the smartphone era is an era within the ambits of progressive performance efficiency. Given the scope of the era, it is seen that smartphone development would be linear (having upward or forward progression) until a point. At that point, we're not sure of what would happen, but what we can be sure of is that there's a(n) (equilibrium) point and The smartphone era could well be approaching that point.

The developmental pace of the smartphone in the space of 10 years (2007-2017) can only be described as unbelievably incredible, smartphone technologies got better at such a blistering speed, it was hard to keep up; those who could keep up were left by the way side fast and hard! But then, the rate of development did begin to hit the equilibrium area pretty soon, several facets of the smartphone have begun to hit limits and the others are beginning to have the limits in sight. The screen technology of the smartphone, for instance, has experienced rapid development and we can literally see how fast this development is heading for its outer reaches. From the early days of 320p display resolution to qHD, HD, Full HD, Quad HD, 4K, 8K, we see that more display information is packed into the screens of the smartphone at a steady pace. However, the law of diminishing returns is beginning to show as there is a physical finite limit to how much display information (in form of pixels) users can perceive, thus, there's a point when an increase in display information won't lead to a perceived increase in display quality. This is just an instance of the smartphone hardware approaching its developmental limits, and a stop to the upward growth would bring a steady decline (if the law of diminishing returns is to be considered again).

Emerging technologies are also beginning to unveil a new frontier that could well be the future of ICT. For the smartphone era, this could mean getting obliterated. One of such technology is AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI holds such a tremendous potential that it seems perfect for a smartphone era successor, its strength lies in its fundamental function: AI learns about the user and carries out what the user wants directly, this is opposed to the smartphone doing what the user tells it to do. Putting in context, even the best smartphones still require substantial levels of input from the user, but then, most users would be willing to give up having to give instructions and commands to computers given the opportunity; and AI has the potential of being that opportunity. In its early years, AI has already offered users conveniences such as making complete orders from a restaurant, help take better photos, even trying to drive them around town, all these with minimum input from the users. Keeping in mind these are early developmental years for AI, one can only imagine how much more can be done with it.

AI does sound a lot like a threat to the smartphone, but on the plus side, the option of integration is still available. A new technology could be integrated in a hardware that is similar to modern smartphones today; a win-win situation, essentially, since functionalities is improved on a shared basis, and then, the legacy of the smartphone isn't totally lost on us. While this sounds upbeat, odds aren't exactly in favour of smartphone; given the recent proliferation of smart displays and other smart mobile technologies, users are given simpler and more intuitive solutions to ICT and this means more competition in the industry.

Greenhulk, what are your thoughts on this?