The big question in techland —how many years we do expect to continue with device – 10,15,20?
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ANAHEIM, Calif. —The iPhone turns 10 on June 29th. Happy birthday iPhone! And with that out of the way, onto the future. How many more years do you think we’ ll be serenading the world’s favorite digital device?
Sure, Apple is poised to sell over 200 million iPhones this year, but let’s face it, technology is fickle. VCRs are hot one day, then they get replaced by DVDs. And when’s the last time you checked out one of those? Cassette tapes, 8-tracks, vinyl albums, the iPod, kitchen radios that don’ t talk back to you and turn on and off your lights. Things change really fast.
So is it a stretch to consider that 10 years from now, we’ ll have ditched the iPhone or Android smartphone for some other sort of newer device?
“You and I may still be using our iPhones, but my kids might be phone nevers, ” says Alex Kruglov, the CEO of the SmileTime video chat website. “They’ ll have some other device that is more utilitarian and a part of their body.”
He sees this imaginary wearable product doing all the things the iPhone does: communication, reading the web, snapping and managing photos, and he’s not alone in this theory.
“The first wearables have been horrible, ” admits Gene Munster, who runs the Loup Ventures fund in Minneapolis. “It’s hard to imagine what it will be, because no one has seen it yet, but there will be some device that you seamlessly interact with, and you’ ll either wear it as glasses or contacts.”
At this point we reach out to readers and say—really? You buying this?
Sure, products come and go, but the telephone has been around since 1876 and TVs in living rooms since the 1940s. They certainly haven’t gone away.
The phone shape has changed, as have the use cases, but it’s still a phone. Even with different screen sizes and wider field of vision, the television is still a television. Turn it on and get entertainment.
So it’s hard to believe that in 2027 and even 2037, we won’ t still be using smartphones, or some mobile device with a glass screen that displays video and helps us communicate with others.
Ten years ago here at #TalkingTech we made calls on a Sprint-branded, company-issued flip phone, so time really has moved on. But the phone we’ re all addicted to now, the one that provides 70% of Apple’s revenues, disappearing like the original iPod? Count us as non-believers.
We asked folks at the VidCon convention here whether they truly believed in a world of tomorrow without an iPhone.
Haleigh Singelton, 15, said she wouldn’t mind a new, mythical wearable device directing her to navigate through gestures and head movements. “If that’s where we’re headed, it makes sense.”
Mom Lisa, said that whatever they come up with, “It would just be something else for us to lose.” She noted how the iPhone is currently her life. “It’s my calendar, my e-mail, my maps, my alarm clock. It’s everything.”
Molly Fershin, 14, who lives near Anaheim, said she wouldn’t mind using a new device that might be glasses, if it’s better than the iPhone, ” but, she admits, “I’d miss holding it.”
Added sister Reilly, 18, “I’d feel naked not having it on me.”
Remember, we’re on record — the iPhone will still be going strong in 2027.
Check the June, 2027 edition of the this column to see how well we saw into the future.
Click this link to listen to Kruglov’s thoughts on the future, in our #TalkingTech audio discussion.
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— Do you still Yahoo?
