Back to the Future - Evolution of Smartphones.
In the present day and age, waking up and not using a mobile phone is
almost unheard of. Smartphones now have such an enormous impact on every aspect
of our life by making everything so easily accessible at the palm of our hands.
The smartphones now have more computing power than most laptops. But how did it
all begin?
The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. In 1984, it became the first commercially
available handheld cellular mobile phone. A full charge took roughly 10 hours,
and it offered 30 minutes of talk time. It also offered an LED display for dialing
or recall and could store 30 phone numbers. It weighed 794 g and stood 33cm
high. It cost a whopping US$3995, which after adding inflation would cost $9912
in 2020. Though the creator, Martin Cooper, made the world's first phone call
in 1973, which weighed around 2kg, it took the company over a decade to bring
it to the market. Now we have a phone that is smaller than your thumb! Zanco
tiny t1 claims to be the smallest phone in the market. The phone has dimensions
of 46.7x21x12mm and weighs13 grams. Yes, it is tiny!
If within 36 years, from the first hand-held mobile phone to now, we
have the power to do almost everything we do on a computer, what will be the
future of smartphones?
1. Augmented Reality - It is a technology that superimposes a
computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world. It means that a
smartphone would be able to help a customer in selecting furniture by visually
creating an image of the furniture at the designated place. Navigation would be
so much easier as we would be able to visually see the direction in which we
have to travel!
2. Over-the-air Charging - Imagine a day where the moment you enter your
house, your phone begins to charge without the requirement of any cables or
plug in's. Companies like Oneplus have their consistent 30-watt warp chargers
but OPPO has launched their new 125-watt flash charger. To give you a
comparison 30w takes an hour for a 4000mah battery to charge completely whereas
125w charge can charge up to 41% in 5 minutes and fully charge it in 20 minutes
at the fastest rate. At this rate of progression, Over-the-air Charging won't
be a dream for long!
3. Foldable phones - This is the next best thing after touchscreen smartphones!
Samsung and Motorola have already launched foldable smartphones that have a
plastic screen in place of glass screens. These phones when open, have a
form-factor of a tablet but when closed it has double the thickness of a normal
phone. The crease at the center of the phone has a major disadvantage of dust
accumulation. To resolve that issue, TCL has a new concept phone that has a
rollable screen. The screen curves behind the phone as it is pressed from the
sides and rolls back open when it's stretched. This eliminates the issue of the
Samsung Galaxy Fold.
But will there ever be
smartphones in the future? Google has already come out with its "Google
glasses" which failed miserably, but it was one of a kind. The future may
be where smartphones can be wearable glasses and AR can be used to project
images and VR can be used for an immersive experience. This would mean that the
evolution of smartphones would eventually lead to its earliest state - The
state of non-existence.
