Getting ready for a post-phone world

Last month, Samsung introduced two new phones that feature foldable screens. Z Fold 7 can turn into a tablet; Z Flip is an old-school flip-phone with smartphone capabilities. Together, these two may be upsetting Apple's cart - Samsung's market share in the US in Q2 2025 is up from 23% to 31% (Apple's is down from 56% to 49%). This could be well be a sign of larger shifts to come. The smartphone as we know it has evolved from being an instrument with buttons and folding screens to its current form, where it is a touch-sensitive sandwich of metal and glass. Manufacturers are trying to get around design constraints by pushing customers towards tablets and watches. Yet, these don't seem to be reversing flattening sales. Tech companies are investing in an array of potential successor gadgets like glasses, wristbands and even tattoos. The most audacious effort is to implant devices in the brain - Elon Musk's Neuralink, for instance - to connect with computers through thought.

No one is sure what device will replace the smartphone, or even if there will be one device to rule it all in the future. There is, however, consensus that phones and computers, which need to 'sleep', won't be around in their current form. AI firms are trying to imagine devices that sidestep the on-off binary of the current state of computing. Chipmakers are hedging their bets for a future when the smartphone doesn't dominate. Lensmakers are experimenting with holographic interfaces.

Even if the smartphone were to walk into the sunset, it would have spawned a hardware revolution to make computing more available to consumers than it is now. Personal computing is entering new territory where physical and emotional conditions of humans are taken into account. Machines will not only make our morning coffee, but they'll also be telling us whether we should be drinking it at all after a late-night party. Smartphones have been our steadiest companions for a while now. But they haven't been able to read our moods. They'll have to learn. Or make way.