The era when people often put their faces down on their phones, the era of two thumbs moving at the “speed of light” on a smartphone screen is gradually coming to an end.
The smartphone market can’t grow anymore, and AI promises to revolutionize our habits. Illustration
Experts believe that voice commands and virtual assistants will become superior to mobile phones. And right now, new devices such as glasses, buttons or clocks are coexisting with mobile phones and will gradually close a stronger role.
An essential personal accessory, a useful assistant in our daily lives and also as a symbol of status – chiMobile phones, since the iPhone appeared in 2007, have been a dominant product, difficult to compare in human life. But perhaps that peak period is over. There are signs of the inevitable decline of mobile phones. Screen addiction is a growing obsession for which smartphones are almost entirely responsible. According to a study published last year in the “International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction”, Nearly 1/3 of smartphone users are at high risk of serious addiction.
Cell phones go from being considered a desirable object to becoming a harmful device. Digital disconnection is recommended as a synonym for better mental health.
There’s also the fact that fewer and fewer phones are being sold. Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Institute, a consulting firm that helps companies spot technology trends, emphasized: “People are still buying smartphones, I’m not saying that suddenly no one is using mobile phones, but this number is decreasing.”
This consulting firm in 2017 assessed that the beginning of the end of the smartphone was due to sluggish sales.(We all have mobile phones, the market is no longer thriving). The numbers will never go back to the glory days of yesteryear,” if we think about the next decade — instead of just using one.The phone will have many different devices. And these devices will replace smartphones. This has already started to happen,” the Future Today Institute assessed.
Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality glasses. Photo: Wired
The era when people often bend their faces on a rectangular screen, the era of faces being projected into the light From the phone, the era of two thumbs moving at the “speed of light” on the screen protector is gradually coming to an end.
In 2022, the number of mobile phone units delivered globally dropped sharply: 11.3% less than the previous year. In the last quarter of the year, when Christmas was supposed to drive up consumption, the decline was even more pronounced. 18,3%. And this trend continued last year, with a decline of 3.2% or 4%, according to various analysts.
Many new utility tools “overshadow” smartphones
Of course, mobile phones, which have revolutionized our lives, will still exist. Some gadgets may be options n substitutes for the uses we have provided for it. For example, AI Pin is a small square electronic medallion hanging from clothes. It receives voice commands: ask the weather forecast, see if there are restaurants in the area, or any questions you’ll ask Google. It responds also by voice thanks to artificial intelligence. If we want, it will also project a green luminescent screen lThe user’s hand allows reading small texts.
The new AI wearable, called AI Pin, is mounted on the shirt. Photo: Techcrunch
Rabbit R1 follows the same idea. It’s a device that’s both classic and sophisticated, and also receives voice queries (and also has a small screen).
Alexander Manu, professor in the Department of Design at OCAD University in Toronto (Canad), who has been studying technology trends for decades, said: “Rabbit R1 does exactly the same things as an advanced voice assistant.” “I can ask him to book me a plane ticket and a hotel. In fact, when using it, I went back to 25 years ago, the time I called my travel agent to book a ticket for mthe destination,” Mr. Manu said.
The list of similar devices continues to grow. For example, Apple’s biggest new launch is the Vision Pro glasses, which allow users to see their surroundings through a projected image P by the high-resolution camera. They combine this visual perception with video playback and other content. It’s as if the user is in a movie theater The giant capital has a window overlooking the world.
According to the creators, none of such devices are intended to replace mobile phones, but it is inevitable to think that they are going in that direction.
Devices such as Lucyd smart glasses also go in the same direction and are the first to integrate ChatGPT: They understand the requirements in natural language.
Besides, Meta has launched its own product in collaboration with glass brand Ray-Ban while phone manufacturers TCL mobile and Oppo have also introduced their own smart glasses.
For Professor Manu, the abundance of alternatives that dare to challenge the mobile phone is a sign of weakness day by day of mobile phones.
“People now criticize AI Pin and Rabbit R1, but if we stop to think, people also criticize the iPhone when it first came out. They mock o and say that Apple will fail.
Mr Manu explained: “You have to remember that this is a transition. We will go from one device to many devices. Back in 1998, I had a laptop, a portable DVD player, an MP3 player, and a MiniDisc. And later all these devices became one, that is, smartphones. With artificial intelligence, we are moving towards a set of multiple devices. We’re going to see a lot of other things. There’s going to be a lot of experimentation.”
The idea here is that each person will have a repository of devices and artificial intelligence that will connect them all. It is this technology that will deal a fatal blow to mobile phones.
“We’ve created a lot of apps. And over time, we realized that ultimately what we want is not the app itself, but the benefits it brings. And Artificial intelligence will be what produces the beneficial outcomes that we want,” Professor Manu said.
Voice communication will be superior
The ChatGPT-style artificial intelligence service will allow you to use your headset to make calls or make queries with just your voice. The role of smartphones is diminished. As technology labs evolve, voice communication between humans and machines will be much more effective than ever before with Siri or Alexa.
The preferred way to communicate with machines is to talk, just like with humans. And what nurtures artificial intelligence is kind of existing in the market today is just the beginning. We’re getting closer to starting a fluent conversation with artificial intelligence, in the style of Robert Downey Jr. – i.e. Tony Stark in Iron Man, when he could even joke with Jarvis (the digital assistant).
Such a change will also have an impact on the economy. According to forecasts, artificial intelligence will create $1.3 trillion worth of business by 2030, compared to $150.2 billion last year. The reason is that it will be available anywhere and on every device possible. Among them are the so-called wearables: smartwatches, bracelets, headphones and even rings.
Villanueva added: “Nowadays, mobile phones involve seeing, reading and using your hands. Maybe we will be able to do it more with the voice interface. It’s not that mobile phones are going to disappear, but that we’re going to interact more with voice. This is a revolution.”