Stop Trying To Kill Smartphones. You Can't.

Now that everyone on the planet is wired to those omniscient smart slabs in their pocket, what’s next?

- David Pierce

That five-inch phone in your pocket, the one you absolutely can’t live without, does damn near anything these days. It’s the Great Usurper, rendering everything from newspapers to music players to actual human interaction all but obsolete. People embraced smartphones faster than any other gadget in the history of the world, creating a trillion-dollar industry that is expected to reach more than six billion people in the next four years.

And yet some people dare to ask, “What’s next?” I hear this question from smartwatch manufacturers and light bulb companies and headphone makers and so many others in tech. They’re all trying to find The Next Big Thing and figure out what the world looks like when smartphones finally go away. Some are betting on the ‘internet of things’ to blanket the world in computers, making the one in your pocket moot. Others say the future lies with computers on your body. Or in your body. Everyone is in the spaghetti throwing phase, searching for the iPhone (or Pixel) killer.

But here’s the thing: Smartphones aren’t going away. Not anytime soon. Smartphones are, and will remain, the hub of a new wheel, the sun around which the universe orbits. The… Well, pick your metaphor. The point is, everyone is asking the wrong question. The right question is: Now that everyone on the planet has a smartphone in their pocket, what crazy new stuff can we do?

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