The last smartphone

The phone I have right now may be the last smartphone in my life.

I must confess: I never liked smartphones. I was quite late to the party and I’ll be the first to leave. They are (and always will be) imperfect in everything they do. And it’s not about processing power, battery life or software. The basic design concept – a quite slippy “brick” you need to hold in your palm and operate with thumb – is not right. At least, since we know how to make it better.

Either too small or too big – they’re at the same time hard to operate and easy to lose or drop and break. Among other commonly used devices like laptops and tablets, phones may die first. To be precise: they will evolve into wearables connected to the cloud. Watches. Glasses. Jewellery.

At the moment, this shift is holden back by big companies. Phones are still a great business and this is the only reason why at the beginning of 2016, good standalone smartwatches are still not there. Samsung and LG already carefully played with the idea. Even if they were too afraid to remove all software limitations keeping this first really “smart” generation still a phone accessory. But the clock is ticking: we’ll see more of those fully independent wearables this year and their mature successors in the next one.

Every year, some smartphone breaks the record of the screen size. Smartwatches give producers a permission to push it even further because they replace a larger device in situations when it’s less convenient to use. But hey – we already have mobile devices with much larger screens for a while. We call them tablets and laptops. That is exact reason why Apple do not let you pair their watch with iPad. Because who does need the phone then?

People tend to say Apple Watch is the least exciting product from Cupertino. They’re wrong. It’s the next iPhone. Nobody reads rumors because it’s pretty obvious what it will be. A bit thinner, a bit better camera, a bit of “the best thing since the thing” marketing… The industry is about to make another step and Apple has no Jobs to be there before others.

So, if your current phone is relatively new, you may consider making it your last one. I do. The next chapter is on the way. And it will be exciting.