Will AI kill the smartphone?

Life and not using a smartphone could seem unimaginable, however AI giants are planning to place the ever present gadget on the scrapheap. “The race to unseat the smartphone is on”, mentioned The Economist, and the AI-powered new technology of units lined as much as change it may seriously change our lives.

Disrupting the duopoly

Over the final 20 years, the smartphone has “come to dominate how consumers interact with the digital world”, creating “one of the most lucrative duopolies in business history”, within the form of Apple’s iPhone, and Google’s Android working system.

The “Lennon and McCartney of the smartphone era” have never sought to rock each other’s boat and, in fact, they’re “only deepening their collaboration in the AI era”, but challengers now hope to “disrupt the duopoly”. OpenAI says it’s “on track” to unveil its own device in the second half of the year, while Meta is developing AI-powered smart glasses, and Amazon has “rolled out” Alexa+, its own AI assistant to its Echo smart speakers. It plans to also add Alexa+ to its Echo smart glasses and earbuds.

This isn’t just about money: some disrupters have “long-standing grievances” with the smartphone “tribute system” that means developers pay Apple a commission of up to 30% on purchases made through apps running on its operating system. Apple has also riled up Meta by making it harder for the social-media giant to “hoover up data” from its gadgets.

Many of the world’s biggest tech companies think that a “radical shift is underway”, and that it could eventually make the smartphone, as we know it, “passé”, said The New York Times.

AI on the go

Modern artificially clever assistants are “far more capable and flexible” than “clunky voice helpers” like Siri, and can supersede smartphone software program in significance, in accordance with specialists interviewed by the newspaper. Apps will lose their relevance when AI assistants are “automatically carrying out tasks” like “making plans with friends, generating shopping lists and taking notes in meetings”. This will “spare us the need to swipe through software menus and type on keyboards”.

Smartphones might be changed by good glasses, whereas “ambient computers”, which embrace “microphone-equipped speakers” and screens “placed throughout a home and gadgets worn on the body” may also dovetail with AI assistants. “Reimagined” smartwatches and AI pendants that “clip to your clothing” to report conversations and create automated transcripts may additionally diminish the way forward for smartphones.

But, in the intervening time not less than, the risk to Apple and Google stays “Lilliputian”, mentioned The Economist; whereas there are 15 million good glasses homeowners worldwide, Apple is believed to have shifted 250 million iPhones final 12 months alone.