Smartphones have experienced explosive growth over the past 10 years. However can it be sustained? Is the device on its way out?
The Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus; the Samsung Galaxy S7; the Sony Xperia Z5; the LG G5. These are some of the most coveted smartphones on the market today. However, by this time next year, most, if not all of them, will all be replaced by newer, and supposedly better, models.
Over the past seven to ten years, more manufacturers have entered the market, resulting in stiff competition for market share, and product release cycles getting shorter to drive continued sales. However, thanks to this wave of competition and innovation, smartphones have transformed how we live and do business. Further, devices are available at a broad range of price points, thus widening the pool of ownership to around 2.6 billion worldwide in 2014, or 36% of the world’s population. By 2020, 70% of the world’s population, or 6.1 billion people will use a smartphone.
However, although smartphone take-up is projected to grow considerably in the coming years, there is a concern that the bottom may already be falling out of the market. Here, we highlight some signs that suggest that the smartphone may already be becoming obsolete.
Innovation has slowed down
Although we, as consumers, might still get excited when a new flagship smartphone is released, experts and techies alike have observed that the most recent releases now tend to just have incremental improvements over previous versions. Further, and almost similar to the automobile, increasingly, the popular smartphones have similar design and features, and are becoming indistinguishable from each other.
Having said this, it could be argued that there is still considerable room for smartphones to be improved, for example, to have better battery life, to charge faster, and to take even better pictures. However, these improvements will not fundamentally change the device, but merely refine the existing and accepted functionality and aesthetic construct.
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