What's Next For Smartphone Innovation

SternisheFan sends in an article about the new features and developments we can expect out of smartphones in the near future. The shortlist: more sensors for tracking the world outside the phone, more gesture-based (i.e. non-touch) input, and integration with wearable computers like smartwatches and Google Glass. From the article: "These under-appreciated components -- the gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, and so forth -- are starting to get more friends in the neighborhood. Samsung, for instance, slipped pressure, temperature, and humidity sniffers into the Galaxy S4. They may not be the sexiest feature in your phone, but in the future, sensors like accelerometers will be able to collect and report much more detailed information. ... In addition to air quality, temperature and speed of movement are also biggies. [Also, a smartphone that can] track your pulse, or even double as an EKG, turning the everyday smartphone into a medical device. ... [For wearable computing,] your smartphone is still there, still essential for communicating with your environment, but it becomes only one device in a collection of other, even more personal or convenient gadgets, that solve some of the same sorts of problems in different or complementary ways." What do you think will be the next generation of killer features for smartphones?

Comments

Innovation

[Nerdfest]

Simply adding existing sensors to phones is not 'innovation'. It's the logical outcome of miniaturization and reduced power requirements, despite what the marketing says. Between Apple and most of the car manufacturers the word 'innovation' seems to have lost all meaning.

Re:Innovation

[Nerdfest]

I should add that the 'killer feature' for smartphones at this point should be a much better battery life, or better durability. Everyone I see raves about how thin a phone is and then slaps it in a rubberized case that at least doubles the thickness.

Re:Innovation

[greenfruitsalad]

durability AND battery life. not OR. these 2 features are the only 2 i would happily pay extra for. i don't need the phone to glow blue when orcs are near, pluck my nose hair or keep my crotch cool in summer. I want it to be soft&bendy (TM) so I can sit on it (with keys/coins in the same pocket) and i don't want to have to carry a 5 year old nokia in my bag in case i actually need a phone for emergency, because there's 80% chance my main phone will be out of juice when i need it most.

Re:Innovation

[Anonymous Coward]

Why wouldn't you just carry a spare battery rather than a whole different phone? Wait a minute... IPHONE (L)USER ALERT!!!! GUARDS! TAKE HIM!

Re:Innovation

[davester666]

Remind me to never touch your phone, ever.

The killer feature would be

[fisted]

reasonable battery life. I stick with my dumbphone until that happens.

Re:The killer feature would be

[auric_dude]

A privacy app where the user has complete control of everything be it leaking information & data to social networks, their affiliates, partners and assorted purchasers of such stuff. Something along the lines of http://tosdr.org/ or the slumbering https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/06/03-0 .

Mech engineering has failed.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

You read any issue of popular science or popular mechanics 50 years ago. All the science fictiony futuristic thingies have come true on the electrical side. TV that hangs like a picture on the wall? Done. Video phones? Done. The entire knowledge of human race at your fingertips? Done. (Though a little disappointed 50% of the knowledge of human race consists of cat videos).

Now on the mech engineering side. Where is my commuter car-plane that is parked on my drive way? huh? What about the high speed trains running in vacuum tunnels going from NY to LA in 90 minutes? Still the same internal combustion engine burning the same damned oil. What happened to crystallic fusion? Dont tell me "aah, we got double As".

Civil, you are not off the hook either. Where the hell is my damned home that is mounted on a pivot that tracks the sun? All engineering fields except electronics have been slacking on the job and have a very disappointing track record.

Make it Generic, Please

[the eric conspiracy]

I want a generic revolution in smart phones. Android goes part way there, but not far enough.

I don't want anything to come from the carrier except packets and monthly bill. Like my ISP. Phone branding by the carrier should just go away. Spectrum should not belong to anyone. Carrier should just be licensed to use the National Allocated Spectrum by the FCC.

Phones should be modular. Want to upgrade the phone battery? Or radio? Add a keyboard? Not a problem. Root access should be expected, not something that has to be obtained by hacking.

I disagree

[SuperKendall]

Simply adding existing sensors to phones is not 'innovation'.

I disagree. There are a million different kinds of sensors that could be added. Innovation is almost NEVER about parts that are wholly new. It's about combinations of things that at first are not apparently that much related and using them in, dare I say it, innovative ways.

A light sensor for example, I personally would not have thought to add to a phone to use to turn off the display when held to the face. I'm not saying it's Apple that did that first, but that to me is a true innovation despite light sensors being around forever.

Even figuring out a clever use for sensors already put in phones can be innovative.

I would also note that just because sensors get smaller and need less power it's not exactly obvious that they should go a in a personal computing device. X-Ray sensors are probably smaller and use less power than they used to but I don't find it an obvious fact they will be in future phones.

On a side note, those who proclaim nothing Apple has ever done is innovation are truly the ones who have robbed the word of real meaning. In an effort to spite Apple they have made true innovation an impossible goal.