Phones are boring, what is the future?

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

When I got the Sony Z3 back in 2014 I thought to myself phones are peaking, fast forward to 2018, and lawd are phones boring. 

 

The ideal phone hasn't changed since 2016, current year snapdragon, 6GB Ram, 64+ GB storage, dual sim for eastern market and traveller, 1080p+ Screen, 5.5inch Amoled or Decent IPS, 3400+ mah, 450+nits, fast charge, latest android or the ability to be rooted, fingerprint sensor, nfc.

 

It really does seem like we are moving to a contraction of the phone market as the average user, either wants a fast-ish device or a nice camera.  What do you think?

[Simon771]

I'm betting on brain chips. 

Instead of regular phone, they will just insert it in your brain and track even your thoughts. 

 

Maybe that won't come so soon, but somehow I think it will exist in the future  

[Fasauceome]

People are boring. Phones are designed around people. Regular tech culture has stagnated due to complacency.

[POLOPIS]

Brain chips already exist. However I imagine they could be very expensive. Some in the Millions, Others in the Billions. I doubt Trillions.

 

depends on which type, maybe only $1500 for one. And Phones are dead to me. iPhone XS are already starting to report damage.

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

1 minute ago, Simon771 said:

I'm betting on brain chips. 

Instead of regular phone, they will just insert it in your brain and track even your thoughts. 

 

Maybe that won't come so soon, but somehow I think it will exist in the future  

I see someone is a fellow Black Mirror fan

[Speed Weed]

Flying cars. 

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Underailing this thread somewhat, probably small iterative improvements until someone figures out how to put the front camera behind the panel (or the selfie finally fucks off and dies like it should). Honestly someone should do a Kickstarter for a 90+% S/B ratio phone with no front camera. I'd buy one.

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

2 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Underailing this thread somewhat, probably small iterative improvements until someone figures out how to put the front camera behind the panel (or the selfie finally fucks off and dies like it should). Honestly someone should do a Kickstarter for a 90+% S/B ratio phone with no front camera. I'd buy one.

Without a selfie, you almost immediately lose the Asian market and most people under 30.  Video calling is also extremely important for those overseas from their family

[Fasauceome]

Just now, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

Underailing this thread somewhat, probably small iterative improvements until someone figures out how to put the front camera behind the panel (or the selfie finally fucks off and dies like it should). Honestly someone should do a Kickstarter for a 90+% S/B ratio phone with no front camera. I'd buy one.

That's something else wrong, the phone industry has a huge disconnect with the average consumer, and Linus mentioned it at one point. The vast majority of users don't care about bezels, or screen to body ratio, or a hidden selfie camera. It's something only tech people care about, people who understand the technical aspects of the phones

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

The next logical step would be phone capability reaching that of a computer. Although manufacturers are more interested in continually selling us what is essentially the same thing, to maximise profitability out of every bit of technological advancement. Because the economy is greed and profit driven, I believe this will result in rapid depletion of resources and eventually the comeuppance of humanity.

Yes consumerism sucks, thanks for bringing all our spirits up this fine morning

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

3 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

That's something else wrong, the phone industry has a huge disconnect with the average consumer, and Linus mentioned it at one point. The vast majority of users don't care about bezels, or screen to body ratio, or a hidden selfie camera. It's something only tech people care about, people who understand the technical aspects of the phones

The majority of users are using lower-end Android devices, a large number of them are located in less-developed countries.

 

4 minutes ago, TheFlyingSquirrel said:

Without a selfie, you almost immediately lose the Asian market and most people under 30.  Video calling is also extremely important for those overseas from their family

And yet I'm sure you could still sell one to techies with a business model along OnePlus lines. Also, you could put a Type C port on the top and you could sell a camera module that plugs into it. Also explain why you lose the Asian market? I don't follow.

[POLOPIS]

 

Perhaps we could use phones as dumb terminals that link up to a Powerful Quantum Computer in the future?

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

2 minutes ago, OrbitalBuzzsaw said:

The majority of users are using lower-end Android devices, a large number of them are located in less-developed countries.

 

And yet I'm sure you could still sell one to techies with a business model along OnePlus lines. Also, you could put a Type C port on the top and you could sell a camera module that plugs into it. Also explain why you lose the Asian market? I don't follow.

Selfie and photography culture comes from South Korea, China, Singapore, Japan.... etc   It is a strong unique selling point over there.  You would essentially remove a feature essential for that market. 

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

8 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

The next logical step would be phone capability reaching that of a computer. Although manufacturers are more interested in continually selling us what is essentially the same thing, to maximise profitability out of every bit of technological advancement. Because the economy is greed and profit driven, I believe this will result in rapid depletion of resources and eventually the comeuppance of humanity.

Adapt the Android platform for the CISC instruction set, and let it dual run Windows lite or Linux. Job Done. 

[Fasauceome]

1 minute ago, huilun02 said:

Well I do what I can as an individual. I said what I said in hopes of people waking up to the situation. In hopes that our descendants will still have a good world to live in. 

There's already a lot of comeuppance society is willfully ignorant of, unfortunately. Climate change denial, huge trash island in the Pacific, it'll take a lot more than too many iPhones to get people to wake up.

[seon123]

What I would love, would be for me not to have to take my laptop with me. Normal school day? Just bring a nice keyboard. Something that needs a large screen? Bring one, and put the phone into that. There are some phones that can sort of do that, but they're all too weak, even compared to ultrabooks. 

My laptop weighs ~2kg + charger, so it would be nice to drop that. 

Another issue is ARM Vs x86, so I don't see this becoming a reality in the foreseeable future. 

[GoodBytes]

The problem is that people don't like radical change. It is rare that it works.

When the iPhone was first introduced, you had as many people raving and being hype about it, as naysayers. Many companies didn't get on board until it was too late. Microsoft saw it as a fad, and put little to no effort on its consumer device. People question electric cars today. You have a lot of people that don't see electric cars as the future. Same for fully automated self-driving cars.

 

Anyway,

 

If you wonder what is "in the works"

 -> Samsung is working on foldable Android based phone. It is unclear if it will be like smartphone of today but closes like a clam shell, or a phone that turns into tablet.

 

 -> You have ZTE with a dual screen phone, but runs Android. Android doesn't play nice with such 1 screen to 2 screen.. at least from ZTE efforts. So it isn't getting attention. Not sure if it is Android limitation, or ZTE rushing it to market to claim "first" from teh consumer perspective.

 

 -> Microsoft is retrying to go into the mobile space again, but this  time they want to revolutionize it, and not keep the same OS. They are working on a book style phone (based on the countless patents being approved), which seems to run full Windows 10, where it will have this adaptable interface passing from phone to tablet. Hence all their effort in: reworking the back of Windows into component base, Windows 10 on ARM, CShell (replacing Shell32, the GUI framework engine used today), continue to push the Store, and working on "Windows OneCore" as Microsoft calls it. They are clearly betting big on a convertible device. The big challenge is the price, in my opinion. It might be easier for Microsoft now as 1000$ phones are now "acceptable" as the market suggests...but I think it will probably cost even more than that, especially if they use foldable OLED screen with pen.

 

 -> Intel is betting on dual screen laptop or dual screen tiny laptop/tablet (basically the same thing, but different sizes), and now focusing on LTE modem (because interest is growing in Windows 10 on ARM, so Intel feel that they would be irrelevant soon if they don't join the fight against Qualcomm). Lenovo Yoga Book C series are an example of this (without LTE and phone capability). Some are on Windows other Android. But Android is being pushed aside as that didn't work too well either, like ZTE effort. Doesn't do phone call though... so I guess, not a phone.

 

[Edit]

I guess Google is feeling the pressure with Windows 10 on ARM. Qualcomm reveals that Google is working on porting Chrome version for Windows 10 on ARM. https://www.onmsft.com/news/qualcomm-exec-says-google-chrome-is-coming-to-windows-10-on-arm-next-year

[Mira Yurizaki]

Phones are boring because what works (for most of the population) has been codified. If you try something outside of that code, you'll end up with a gimmicky phone that it would take nothing short of a miracle for it to take off.

 

There are plenty of good ideas out there from other companies than Samsung and Apple, but nobody cares because they don't drastically improve what they have already.

[Javilen]

The future:

 

$2000 phones that look and perform identically from models released 5 years ago.

[GoodBytes]

Oh to add. Samsung is working on its own O for phones. But that has been in the works for ages. That is why it pushes its used for its own app store, apps and Bixby, its own Voice AI thing. They hope people get used to these apps, so that when their OS is ready, the transition will be smoother... it also bet that Android apps will run fine on it.. the problem they face, is Google Play Service requirement that many apps needs in order to function. The same blockage that blocked Windows 10 Mobile from having Android apps (beside the performance drop to the running everything through a translation layer, so this feature never came to be)

 

[EPENEX]

The past 4 years I haven't seen any improvements with phones that would get me to consider upgrading. I'm not interested in small bezels (I need something to grip onto without touching my screen- bottom bezel should include a home, back, and menu buttons, and top bezel should have a camera, speaker, and other stuff), multiple cameras (camera quality still hasn't improved much from flagship phones from 4 years ago, still waiting for more improvement), notches (yuck, same with rounded corners- just ew), no headphone jack (I use mine a lot, not going wireless- that would just be another device to buy and charge), fingerprint readers under screen (I don't use biometrics as they are insecure- governments can warentlessly force you to unlock them), etc.

[Canada EH]

8 hours ago, TheFlyingSquirrel said:

What do you think?

We want Japan Tech NOW!!!!!!!

Whatever they got, is light years ahead of Trumpland.

[Mira Yurizaki]

12 minutes ago, Canada EH said:

We want Japan Tech NOW!!!!!!!

Whatever they got, is light years ahead of Trumpland.

Actually they're not.

 

Source: I was just there in May.

[B33K]

robots designed for pleasure 

[Canada EH]

3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Actually they're not.

 

Source: I was just there in May.

Dont they got the shidizzle over there, like physical zoom camera's, cells with 2 sim slots etc etc etc.

 

 

Already been made

1 minute ago, B33K said:

robots designed for pleasure