A couple of years ago, we had high-end smartphones that were equipped with 1GHz processors and 5-megapixel cameras. One year back, the processor cores doubled and megapixel count soared to 8MP. Now, it seems even 4 cores aren’t enough, and we’ve seen upwards of 41-megapixel cameras make their rounds.
Yes, folks, the smartphones of today evolve at such a rapid rate that it’s getting tough trying to predict what mobile phone manufacturers will come up with in the next year or two.
Smartphones Then
It used to be that smartphones were simply high-end cellular phones with tons of features used by power users, geeks, businessmen, and rich people. They were like Mercedes-Benz AMG cars, with lots of horsepower and an epic price tag that’s unnecessary for the average consumer. They weren’t polished and fit only certain kinds of people with the right lifestyle. They were feature-rich, but were still mostly limited in terms of the robustness of their respective ecosystems.
It’s tough to imagine that the Sony Ericsson P990 smartphone, for example, is already quite obsolete specs-wise compared to today’s smartphones. It used to rule the market, as it was excellent both for personal and for business applications. It was well-designed and came packed with features. It feels like 2006, the year the P990 was released, is not too long ago, but if you consider this particular phone model and pit it against a Samsung Galaxy S III or even an iPhone 4S, there’s really no contest.
Smarterphones Now
Now, everyone has a smartphone to a certain extent, and this kind of demand simply drives up the rate at which manufacturers churn out model after model, year after year. Phones get sleeker, more powerful, easier to use. People aren’t lacking for options, from the entry-level smartphones to the kings of the hill that slug it out under the designation of flagships.
For all intents and purposes, smartphones are getting smarter all the time. Development never ceases, and from all aspects of production, manufacturers are always seeking improvements and new features. From the operating system to the glass material being used for the screens, it’s all about manufacturers trying to one-up each other. Not that we’re complaining—this competition drives prices down and encourages phone manufacturers to give their best efforts.
In a few years’ time, you may be playing epic 3D PlayStation games right on your mobile phone. You might be taking holographic calls via your smartphone-based RingCentral phone service. Megapixel count might become so high that you won’t know how you’re going to upload all your media onto your FaceBook timeline—even if mobile Internet speeds by then would make our 3g/4g connections today more like dial-up.
We have a pretty good idea of how fast technology develops, transforms, and evolves. Even then, however, it can still seem a tad inconceivable to most of us average smartphone users how the “next best thing” will look like, much less what’s going to be inside. These things could have the Allspark in them eventually, for all we know.
It’s almost scary to think of getting a new phone because you know there will always be something bigger and better in just a few months. Well, that’s something we all have to live with now that we’re dealing with phones that get smarter and smarter.
Nancy Perkins
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