Smartphones have reached their top, so what might be able to be subsequent?

I used to be not too long ago requested to provide some the explanation why somebody may need to transfer from iOS to Android, underneath the pretense that this hypothetical individual hadn’t used Android in over 10 years. After sitting and fascinated about it for a short while, I supplied my responses, however I additionally got here away with a burning query — Is AI in reality the final frontier?

It’s a query that is been damn round in my head for the easier a part of the previous yr, as I’ve watched Google, Samsung, Apple, OnePlus, and others, attempt to to find the correct stability. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is in reality guilty after it exploded onto the scene again in past due 2022. It changed into so widespread so briefly that it compelled Google’s hand to the purpose that Gemini used to be at the start known as Bard. Like, for months, earlier than making the right kind choice to rebrand it.

At the similar time, Apple threw within the towel and simply built-in ChatGPT into the iPhone, and it nonetheless does not do anything else to make Siri any higher. Samsung’s partnership with Google is paying off, as it’s leaning closely on Gemini for its Galaxy AI integrations. Even OnePlus were given within the sport, additionally depending on a mixture of its personal in-house evolved AI fashions, at the side of Gemini Nano at the likes of the OnePlus 13.

All of this sounds nice, in point of fact. But what can perhaps be subsequent?

There’s now not a lot else that may be achieved in the best way of design innovation. We have already got flippable clamshells, book-style foldables, or even bi-folds that everybody is looking tri-folds. And whilst rollable telephones have not in reality hit the marketplace but, they will not be some distance off, as Lenovo introduced a rollable computer that is in truth being launched later this yr.

Android is not taking part in catchup to iOS, a minimum of in maximum regards, and one may even argue that Android is the easier platform for everybody. Do you wish to have to tinker? Use Android. Want to stay issues easy? Get a Pixel. Looking to duplicate the Apple ecosystem? Look no additional than Samsung.

While I may without a doubt sit down right here and nitpick about issues on each iOS and Android, that is more or less the purpose. They’re most effective nitpicks. The panorama is not anything love it was once, as there is moderately a little of function parity between the 2 platforms. No, it isn’t synchronous, however the days of now not having the ability to carry out even essentially the most elementary of duties on one and now not the opposite have disappeared from the rearview replicate.

So what can perhaps be subsequent? I truthfully do not assume the solution in truth lies inside of smartphones. If I had been to make a non-educated bet, the “Next Big Thing” would not in truth have anything else to do with a smartphone. I believe we are heading in a fully other route, and the in all probability finish result’s going to be a wearable like Meta’s Ray Ban Smart Glasses.

Maybe it may not be the ones particularly, but it surely must be one thing in that ballpark. At the similar time, I don’t believe it’ll be digital fact, a minimum of now not in our day by day lives. Maybe VR overtakes console gaming or one thing, however seeing how widespread handhelds are turning into, I doubt even that occurs.

As identified by means of Michael Hicks, Android Central’s senior editor of Wearables & AR/VR, there are many attainable issues that may wish to be remedied with quite a lot of Android XR headsets after they in any case hit the marketplace. These are identical problems to those that proceed to have an effect on smartwatches, reminiscent of “battery existence, relaxed and classy designs, available controls,” among others.

Although Google and Samsung are getting a past due leap in comparison to Meta, that is not essentially a nasty factor. With different corporations already liberating choices, this offers others the chance to be told what errors to keep away from, along with having an concept of “what works” as opposed to what does not.

However, not like smartphones and different wearables, Android XR has the distinct and distinctive “benefit” of being the primary new platform to reach within the age of AI. We absolutely be expecting Gemini to be in all places and anyplace that Google can put it, however I additionally would not be stunned if its capability is proscribed for the primary yr or two.

This is just because good glasses have a restricted bodily area, and can have a large number of quite a lot of sensors and different essential elements simply to paintings. Plus, new platforms and new gadgets generally imply upper costs as corporations attempt to recoup the R&D prices along with making an attempt to show a benefit.

No, I do not consider that AI is the general frontier, however I do consider that we are on the “finish of the road” in the case of avenues that may be explored in the case of {hardware}.

Nothing will be capable to reflect and even substitute the smartphone for plenty of causes, however principally as a result of your telephone is essentially the most non-public software you will have. This is in part why I believe we are seeing corporations shift focal point to enforcing AI into the device, because it will have to make our maximum non-public gadgets much more non-public.

So, whilst it is going to look like AI is the subsequent frontier, I do consider that there is nonetheless room for one thing new in the case of {hardware}. Now, it is simply as much as corporations to determine what that appears like and to find techniques to put into effect it in our day-to-day lives.