IPHONE EVOLUTION BEYOND 20 YEARS
THE ICONIC HANDSET’S PROSPECTS REMAIN STRONG
It wasn’t so long ago that we were celebrating the first decade of the iPhone. In June 2017, Apple put its digital candles on this 10-year anniversary, reflecting on a decade of sales escalating from only 1.39 million in 2007, to more than 200 million in 2017. Back then, people were already asking if the iPhone would reach its 20th birthday, and the question is being asked again in 2019.
Since CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple’s revenue for the fiscal first quarter of 2019 would be lower than originally anticipated, it has been suggested that iPhone and other smartphone sales worldwide could reduce. However, while this could be the case, the idea that the iPhone is likely to vanish altogether in the next 10 years is surely verging on the absurd.
The ubiquity of smartphones, and their essential nature in the business world in particular, make the continued evolution of such devices inevitable. In fact, one of the possible explanations for smartphone sales slowing in the last few years is simply us being so used to them that they have become a little dull.
Investigating this concept a little deeper for a moment; in 2007, most people didn’t really need an iPhone, so when it arrived, everything about it had the ‘wow’ factor. Today, new updates and features simply aren’t met with the same level of surprise and intrigue. It’s now a case of expectation, and considering which features will improve the lives of certain groups.
Slower sales of smartphones have been likened to the 2011 peak of laptop sales. At this point,
the devices had become good enough to do everything expected of them – and many people had begun turning to smartphones for things the laptop could never do. And – again following a similar trend to what has happened with smartphones – consumers then began hanging onto models for longer, without upgrading.
This is why we can expect to see a significant redesign of apps, features, and even the shell and shape of entire devices. Apple and other smartphone developers will be forced into creating better products that fulfill even more consumer needs and expectations. So, what can we hope or expect to see?
If, at this point, you need a little reminder of how far the iPhone came in its first 10 years of production, take a look at this video of people in 2017 trying to get to grips with the 2007 model.
BETTER MATERIALS
Apple will doubtless strive to exceed customer expectations at all levels during the next decade. This is likely to mean addressing environmental concerns, as well as looking at creating products that will appease an increasingly sustainability-conscious consumer. Of course, the company already invests in research that creates more sustainable materials, and released the ‘greenest-ever iPad’ last year, made from 100% recycled aluminum.
Market rivals like HTC are already creating sapphire crystal displays that are practically impossible to scratch during everyday use. If significant new technology is added to the
iPhone over the next decade, we could see an iPhone with a screen that looks brand new every single day. Just imagine: no more scratches to your handset’s display from keys, coins or it having been left face down on a dusty desk.
While dropping the scratch-free future iPhone on a hard floor still probably wouldn’t be recommended, a sapphire crystal display or synthetic diamond film could help to reduce the likelihood of replacement screens or screen protectors being required. Sustainability will be a driving force in design and development over the next decade, but money will always be a factor too – as people keeping hold of their phones for longer has proved.
Other materials that are likely to appear in future iPhones include zirconia ceramic, which is another practically scratch-free surface that has already been a feature of the Apple Watch series. As reported by CNBC, however, researchers at the University of Tokyo have already developed a type of glass that can be repaired by simply pressing it together after it cracks.
Will we see an iPhone that heals itself within the next 10 years? Now that would certainly be a product worth keeping hold of – although even letting go of it from time to time might not do it much harm!
APP-FREE SCREENS
The most significant change in the iPhone over the next 10 years will probably be what’s under the hood of the device. Right now, there are more than two million apps available on the Apple App Store – that’s a whole lot of notifications and tailoring of settings.
‘Unsupervised deep learning’ is being developed to become the future of machine learning. Once in the AI of the device in your hand, this technology will make awkward conversations with Siri a thing of the past, and make the voice and display interfaces on iPhones much more intelligent.
With the potential to specify what you need or want to see and what isn’t important to you, the most important setting that you could have may well be the one that you use to customize your experience on your device. While it’s entirely likely that the iPhone will still have a screen, as opposed to something like a 3D hologram illuminating the space above your wrist, what lies beneath the screen could be an omnipresent platform that is with you 24/7.
AUGMENTED REALITY MADE MAINSTREAM
As devices other than smartphones will also be getting better and smarter in the meantime, it will become essential that the iPhone is able to interact with them as much as possible. While the 1990s predicted that virtual reality would become the future, it seems that people are less keen on escaping fully from reality, and more eager to enhance the world around them.
The potential is already there for AR to revolutionize shopping and leisure activities, and it has been a mainstay of social media for the last few years.
Where the iPhone could become the very peak of customer AR technology is by immediately and seamlessly connecting with other devices, technologies, products, places and even people. This would mean that while the iPhone itself might not look much different, the world seen through the screen would be packed with learning and interaction.
Upcoming technologies, such as the longawaited folding screen, might not seem to be an essential feature of the smartphone, now – but imagine a device that could double in size to see a world brimming with new experiences. AR could be the ideal digital realm to interact with via a foldable screen and as both technologies develop, in 10 years time we could be looking at the whole world in a different way through the iPhone.
There will be some other fundamental improvements to the iPhone that inevitably come to fruition during the next 10 years. Battery power and security, among many other
expectations, will continue to be improved and enhanced, and Apple may even solve its ongoing wireless charging issues before 2029!
Although there has been a downturn in iPhone sales, which may or may not negatively impact production and research over the next few years, there is surely no chance of the iconic smartphone disappearing anytime soon. But while it’s certainly difficult to envisage exactly where technology is going to lead us over the next decade, is it not more difficult to imagine what the world would look like were the iPhone to be made obsolete?