As Apple launches the 10th anniversary iPhone this fall, we should not only marvel at where the device has taken us but also consider where it is likely to go.
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Smart phones have proven transformational products, much like Ford’s Model T or television. They put into our pockets mobile and immediate access to internet, personal computing, cameras and scanners, and cloud data and analytics.
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With more than 3.5 million apps, these devices have revolutionized how we take and use photos, access music and videos, and many other mundane consumer and business activities. In the process, they have substantially disrupted business models in major segments of the media, retailing and personal and business services industries.
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These devices have made markets profoundly more efficient — for example, comparison shopping by merely scanning a bar code. In turn, they transformed Amazon and Facebook from struggling enterprises into advertising, financial and research-and-development powerhouses.
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Alas, those are only the beginning. Ten and 20 years from now, the cellphone may well be a pair of glasses or a small implant above the eyebrow with a tiny complex of video and audio sensors that facilitate virtual intelligence.
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We have all stood on a crowded train station and recognized a face at a distance but couldn’t quite identify who it might be. With new facial recognition technology, our phones will be able to quickly process the image against a catalog of people we have met or just seen over the last 10 years or longer. An app will adjust the images — past and present — to account for aging, beards, makeup and the like.
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It may even alert the user automatically: Sally Adams from your 10th grade geometry class is across the platform. Do you wish to send a text?
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