We have come a long way in terms of technology. From horse driven vehicles to self-driven ones and from bulky telephones to smartwatches that handle your calls for you. Along with technology, mobile phones and their features are also evolving at revolutionary speeds. Just a few months ago, before the launch of iPhone 7, no one could have imagined that a cell phone could capture images like that of a DSLR camera. Now, there are several phones pulling it off and making it look easy. Smartphones have made our lives easier and they will continue to do so. But, what is the future of smartphones?

So how will mobile phones change in the future?

1. Artificial Intelligence

When anyone uses the term ‘artificial intelligence’ they mean they want to create an entity who can think and act like a human. No, we are not referring to the act of birth. This entity is digitized and synthetic, yet possesses the intelligence that can rival a human brain.

The concept of artificial intelligence is nothing new for smart devices, however it extremely tough to create. Google, Apple and Windows have released their own mobile phone assistants who work in a similar way. The concept is that this artificial intelligence will make your mobile phone much smarter and thus help you in your day to day life voluntarily. Currently, you can give it commands and ask you to do something. The phone can even maintain conversation up to a few lines, which is great progress!

However, next generation phones will be different. In the future, your phone will be able to tell when you are sad and accordingly cheer you up with a joke or maybe even console you. It will be able to grow based on your actions and accordingly will predict your next move and do it for you. For example, if it hears an appointment with a dentist on the phone, it will automatically set a reminder without asking you.

Of course, all of this seems like a distant dream, but Google and Apple are already making great progress in this field. Mark Zuckerberg even has his own AI running his house which is pretty close to the ideal thing. Guess Skynet from Terminator might not be so fictitious after all!

 

2. Power source

Currently, smartphones are powered using lithium ion batteries. These batteries need to be physically charged through wall socket or a power bank. There have been developments with wireless charging, but they still need the charger to be connected to the wall socket and the phone to be placed on the charger (have physical contact with it).

Imagine a future, where all these wires are removed – The phone is charged completely wirelessly. Think about it, you enter a room and boom! Your handset starts charging instantly like it is receiving the Wi-Fi signal. There is already research being conducted into this concept and how to reduce the side effects that it will have on our health.

A much safer way would be to use solar power to charge your phone. With high efficiency solar cells and a quick charging battery, a few minutes in the sun would be enough to power your phone for the entire day.

If you really want to be crazy, imagine the battery getting charged by the power of your voice. Anything is possible.

 

3. Phone Screen

All modern phones use LED screens, but this will soon become outdated in 100 years. I predict that the future of the smartphone screens will be complete transparence. It will be a simple glass slab with a discreet bevel at the bottom. This slab will be able to provide the phone with all the hardware required and transmit data to the glass slab directly. Moreover, this glass pane can also be flexible and more resistant to falls than Rocky Balboa.

This style will improve the applications of augmented reality and even virtual reality. The concept of having phones like Iron Man does in the movie is not that far in the future anymore!

But let us take it one step further and completely eliminate the idea of screens completely. Why use glass or any other material to project images when you can use the air? Technology will have truly transcended itself when the phones use holograms to project the output and you can interact with this hologram to control the phone.

This concept will be minimalist and remove all the stigma that was ever there about the size of the phone. The projected area will be according to your needs. Do you want a TV sized phone? Or would you prefer the phone to be small enough to fit on your wrist? Either way, you shall have your pick!

 

4. Improved Security

As a person who just had his phone stolen, this improvement holds a special place in my heart. The security of smartphones has already improved leaps and bounds. Earlier, simple pins were used to unlock the device. Now you can use your fingerprints, your voice and even your face to login securely.

Thus, this leaves little room for improvement. But technology can only grow if you dream it. Picture a phone that unlocks itself only when it knows that you are the one holding it. A famous James Bond movie showed how a gun could be designed to fire only if the programmed person was holding it. As fictitious as that was, the concept sure is intriguing.

The phone could measure several human characteristics and accordingly unlock itself for the user. If some intruder tries to hack in, the phone could immediately erase all data. Or better yet, hide all the data and make it seem like there is nothing there. The mobile phone should equally be able to resist all types of virusses and malware. It could also fake a malfunction to keep the nosey people out of the phone’s contents.

 

5. Unlimited storage

When you think of it, this is already possible for Google Pixel phones using cloud based storage. However, technically speaking, this will require you to use the internet and download or upload your data. As fast as your data connection may be, this will at least take some time. Moreover, it proves to be quite dangerous if you happen to have compromising photos that accidentally got uploaded to the drive.

 

Envision this – the phone starts to store the information in the air around you and itself. When the phone needs the data, the phone will manifest this data literally out of thin air!

 

Wherever you walked, the data walked with you allowing for instant access with virtually no lag whatsoever. You could use this to store all the information around you and keep your secrets close to yourself as well.

 

Conclusion

The world of technology is only limited by our imagination. A few decades ago, no one could have foreseen a phone having touch controls, much less one that talks back to you and answers your silly questions when you have them. No one can accurately guess what smartphones and their features will be like in the next 100 years. However, all we can do is hope and keep imagining new ways to improve it. You never know when you might come up with a billion-dollar break through.

If you feel like you have better ideas on how the future of smartphones will change over the next 100 years, please leave it in the comment sections below. Don’t worry, we won’t steal your idea quite so early in the game!