I would like to discuss the modern smartphone market and share the idea that the phone is becoming something mundane and boring.
Every year I notice more and more that smartphones are becoming something commonplace. Although now every six months significantly more devices are released than ten years ago in one or two years. It would seem that you can pick up a smartphone for every taste, color and wallet, but if you look closely, all devices are, plus or minus, the same or similar to their predecessors. Well, if you compare different generations of flagships, then the differences can be counted on one hand.
Boring smartphone market
I was led to this idea by the recent announcement of Samsung Galaxy Note 7. I watched the entire presentation from start to finish, and at work I had to, one way or another, be aware of all the news about it. Almost all the specifications and designs were known a month before the announcement, so I did not expect any innovations or something surprising. If you think about the Note 7, then this is a great smartphone. Personally, I do not like only the bottom edge with connectors, it somehow looks sloppy, otherwise there is nothing to complain about (I will not say anything about the price – not about that now), but not the first presentation of the next flagship one thought leaves me. Boring. Very boring. Differences from the same Note 5 or Galaxy S7 Edge at least. And this is not the fault of Samsung specifically, it's just that Note 7 is on the rumor. Instead of them, you can put any company – LG, HTC, Apple and so on. Already now we roughly know how iPhone 7 will look (or whatever it will be called there) and what features await us – a slightly modified design of the 'sixes', a dual camera and the absence of a 3.5 mm jack.
Find 10 differences
In general, why am I telling all this. I want to share one thought: a smartphone is becoming an ordinary household appliance, like a TV, refrigerator or microwave. From year to year, the differences between the flagships are becoming less and less. Slightly faster, slightly better camera, slightly better screen, only the battery life remains unchanged. I now have an 'old man' LG G2 in my hands, which appeared in August 2013 (!), But it still works very smartly. Yes, I want to change it to something newer, but rationalism and common sense do not allow me to do this, there is simply no need for it.
Computers took the same path in their time. Remember the time when there was a huge difference between the Voodoo and Voodoo 2 graphics accelerators or the Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 processors. Then the user had to buy a new video card or processor for the sake of one game, and lowering the graphics quality or resolution did not help. What now? Now you can assemble a powerful computer, and it is unlikely that you will have to upgrade it until the next generation of consoles is released, because it is they who provoke the market stagnation.
The same thing happens with smartphones. This market begins to fade, and the world of tablets has completely died out. Few people are interested in studying the characteristics or model of the processor, constantly installing new firmware or custom. The phone has turned from a cool and interesting technical device into something ordinary. Although the same iPhone 7, I'm sure will be a good phone, but still boring. And somehow it becomes sad from this.
Against this background, the Moto Z smartphone makes me happy. Despite the controversial design, it looks unusual and fresh, it has something attractive. It seems to me that the company simply did not have enough time to finalize the appearance of the device, because it is enough to remove a couple of shortcomings, and there will be candy.
What's next for us?
Now, it seems to me, services will rule the world of mobile devices. It is in this direction that the development of technologies will go. Already now we can order a taxi or food, transfer money, pay for purchases directly from a smartphone. To replenish a mobile account, it is enough to send an SMS with the amount I want to deposit, and the money will be debited from the card. I can no longer imagine that for such banal things I will need to go and look for a terminal. Which is good news. Who knows, maybe in the future we will completely get rid of the need to go to state institutions to process documents or certificates. One well-known bank has already done this. The smartphone market has stopped actively developing, but our life thanks to mobile devices becomes easier.
I understand that the text turned out to be a little chaotic, but it was created no longer to convey information, but to get feedback. Therefore, I would like to know your opinion on this matter, dear readers. Have smartphones really become commonplace in your life?