Extending Mobility

Future upgrades and changes to phones

Throughout history of phones we have seen major upgrades and changes in their design and their mode of communication. It is almost hard to believe that phones which were once full of buttons and cords have now evolved into multi purpose portable touchscreen devices that we can easily carry around wherever we go. The drastic changes in mobile phones since the last few decades have made them into a necessity instead of a luxury and that raises more questions about what changes will we see in mobile phones in the next decade and what new roles will they be playing in our daily lives.

Steve Jobs unveils the very first iPhone(2007)

                        

Very first mobile phone demonstrated by Martin Cooper(1973)

Nowadays we are already starting to see new and useful features being added to mobile phones. For example Samsung galaxy s8, Google pixel 2 and iPhone 8 have water resistance feature to protect from water damage. More and more phones are starting to adapt this change as the demand for it increases. The engineer Scott Havard from iFixit explains water resistant phones like an egg. "If you have an Easter egg that can break into two parts, all of a sudden the game changes, Water goes to the place of least resistance the gap between the shells and sometimes, it can get through. With enough pressure, you can push water molecules into the device," says Havard. According to cnet there is no such thing as  truly water proof phones even with all the techniques and drying agents to keep the water out. In the future we will see water resistance and maybe water proof phone become mainstream. This article at tuffphones predicts that the future is water proof  and in the coming years we can expect water proof phones to have become mainstream.

Flexible phones are another innovation we are likely to see in the coming years. Companies like Samsung have already released a sneak peek of the fold-able Galaxy X. This article from TechRadar quotes "Foldable phones are coming  it’s only a matter of time and it's looking increasingly like Samsung could be the first company to commercially launch one, possibly as soon as this year.". Other companies like Lenovo have also revealed a concept of a flexible phone named Cplus that you can wear on your wrist. Lenovo said it won't be available for sale any time soon but we can expect devices like this in the upcoming years. Here is another article from cnet showing how this will look. This is just the beginning for the world of flexible mobile phones. Samsung's launch in 2019 could pave way for more creative ideas to take place by 2025. Here is a video showing different kinds of concepts of flexible phones



Embedded sims (eSims) are also another great new features mobile phones are expected to have in the upcoming years. They are basically sims which are built into your phone so you don't have to go through the trouble of removing or inserting it every time you want to change your plan because it can all be done digitally. According to this article "An eSIM is still a SIM card. Customers still have to sign up with an operator. They still have access to advanced services, and can transfer their phone numbers. They have a unique contact number, and the same legal requirements still apply with regard to customer identity" (Christine Lemoine). ESims will likely replace the physical sims we have been using all our lives as explained here and phones are going to adapt to this change to keep updated with current technology. Alex Shoolman predicts the future of eSims in his article "It’s predicted that by 2021 there will be over 500 million mobile and IoT devices shipping with an inbuilt eSIM. Yearly. So by 2025 it’s quite likely your new phone will not only have an eSIM, but so will your car, your laptop, your watch and everything else.(Alex Shoolman)". By the next decade we are likely to see eSims rule the world of mobile and IoT devices.

These are only few examples of what the future of mobile phones will look like. The world of mobility is full of endless possibilities and ideas which we are still yet to see.

References
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-does-waterproofing-work-apple-iphone-7-samsung-galaxy-s7-sony-xperia/
https://www.tuffphones.co.uk/waterproof-mobile-phones/waterproof-phones-are-the-future-for-us-all
https://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-galaxy-x-the-story-of-samsungs-foldable-phone-so-far
https://www.cnet.com/news/lenovo-shows-off-superflexible-phone-you-wear-like-a-watch/
https://www.neowin.net/news/lenovo-offers-another-look-at-cplus-its-flexible-android-smartphone-concept
https://hellofuture.orange.com/en/esim-coming-soon-mobile-networks-services-near/
https://www.alexshoolman.com/blog/2018/03/16/smartphones-2020-2025-future-predictions/