Smartphones in 2050: What Will the Future Look Like?

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Photo by Theo Eilertsen Photography

There’s a massive interest and speculation on the internet about the next breakthrough and general future of smartphones. Apparently, people are getting bored by mini iterations on the current trajectory of smartphones being powered by marketing gimmicks.

Futuristic technologies in the world have been powered by the imaginative powers of sci-fi writers and movie directors; teleportation, air travel, flying cars, robots, etc. Most of the time, science is unable to keep up, as in the case of flying cars.

Now, consumers are already dreaming about a future in mobile telephony technology that will match the promise of an advance future for humanity.

The Current Trajectory

In the last decade, the most significant innovation so far is the Samsung Fold. Samsung Display is pretty certain that this is the future of smartphones. According to an article on the The Elec, the vice president of Samsung Display reportedly said, 

“It [the company] will develop new display form factors such as roll-able and slide-able to cement its leadership in 2021.”

Samsung is choosing its future.

These roll-able & foldable phones are looking more and more like the immediate future of technology in the smartphone industry. Do you agree with Samsung?

Because TCL does. This year, the global smartphone maker announced plans to compete with Samsung’s Fold with TCL’s roll-able smart phones. The Phone, made to extend from a 6.7-inch phone into a 7.8-inch tablet at the tap of a finger, will give a different direction to fold. 

On its UK store, OPPO mobile, in an article titled: What Could Your Future Smartphone Look Like in 2030?, made some couple of predictions while pointing to Foldable also as key pointers in smartphone innovations among other innovations such as 6G connection and no-ports phones.

“Foldable phones in the future would be a pretty common thing,” the Company wrote.

Predictions For The Future

Is foldable really the future? Or is the smartphone industry merely setting the narrative? With these thoughts in mind, take a peek at what is going around as “the next future.”

Several science fiction movies have prepped us for this one, from The Expanse to Iron Man 2. In the latter, Tony Stark appeared in court with a transparent smartphone, slim enough to look more like a piece of glass. Light, visual and interactive.

The opulent translucent LG mobile-sponsored phone has a lot of functionality in them. The appeal is very strong, but perhaps not to smartphone manufacturers that’d need to figure out how to transcend to this point. It would seem that first, we need to move our minds away from bending phones and towards real innovations.

Augmented Reality

In another well-versed alternative argument, technologists believe the world is heading in a different direction. In fact, they say that we may already nearly be here – except this way of communication will no longer include our hands, but through special devices attached to our eyeballs.

“As for what type of ‘phone’ we’ll rely on when AR sets in, it’s hard to say for sure,” wrote Vadim Nekhai, Managing Director of Banuba, back in 2019. “We’re preparing for a time when smart devices as we know them cease to exist, so expect something totally different from what we use today; potentially advanced glasses or contact lenses, all with a focus on camera-centric apps.”

After the release of Oculus Quest 2 by Meta, Android experiences powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon and the involvement of Apple in similar innovations, many technologists are now certain this is where we are headed.

Randon Minkov on Phonearena.com opined that Apple participation in the Augmented Reality space is going to hyper-jump the technology to the mainstream. He wrote, “So how is all of this related to Apple’s AR glasses? And how are those ‘the future’? Well, I believe AR, in general, is the future of mobile technology, because I’ve been experiencing it for a while, and it’s got me excited. And Apple is shaping up to be the first company to introduce AR to the mainstream as a whole, finished product.”

Do you agree with this position?

Photo by Becky Fantham

Holographic Displays

50 years ago, we experience the possibilities of holographic imagery in the debut of R2-D2’s holographic broadcast of Princess Leia to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Sky walker in Star Wars. 

Several phones and game consoles have been released with promises of 3D images that are interactive. Although, they have relied a lot on optical illusions and require a specific angle view point. Earlier this year, IKIN, a company founded by 28-year-old Taylor Scott, announced significant progress in their production of holographic technology. They posit to have the most advanced version of the technology.

IKIN, based in San Diego, is very close to realising the holographic dream with the use of polymers. In a public and investor meet, CTO Scott said, “People for years have thought of holographic communication as sort of idealized magical future and that is actually 2021.”

IKIN’s accessories create 3D holograms viewable in daylight from Android or iOS smartphones with a specialized proprietary chemical polymer lens – Scott’s first patent involved polymers.