“Nearly a decade after the iPhone broke the mould for mobile phones the question being asked is whether the evolution of the smartphone has finally come to an end, as even Apple now treats older, smaller 4-inch screens as something new,” Eric Auchard reports for Reuters.
“Industry experts believe innovation in smartphones is giving way to phone functions popping up as software or services in all manner of new devices from cars to fridges to watches and jewellery rather than remaining with handheld devices,” Auchard reports. “The financial stakes are high as the futures of Apple, Google, and Microsoft, the world’s three biggest listed companies at the end of last year, may now turn on who gets the jump on making handsets redundant.”
Auchard reports, “Independent financial analyst Richard Windsor said flexible displays that could be unfolded or unrolled to up to 10 or 14 inches would set phones free from being defined by screen size. ‘What is a tablet computer?’ Windsor asks. ‘Why would you bother having a tablet? That market would just evaporate overnight,'” he said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whatever it is, you can bet that Apple will be leading the way.