Support this Site
Become a Six Colors member to read exclusive posts, get our weekly podcast, join our community, and more!By Dan Moren for Macworld
How Apple will (eventually) replace the iPhone
A couple of decades ago, most people probably didn’t imagine there would be a day when they would carry around an incredibly powerful piece of technology that would be utterly integral to their daily lives. Back then, cellphones had only recently become affordable (it hasn’t even been 20 years since I got my first one); the concept of fitting the internet into your pocket was still a few years away.
But the smartphone revolution came, saw, and conquered. Nowadays it’s far easier to imagine getting by without a car or a computer than without a smartphone. But technology has a way of never standing still and, moreover, technological evolution seems to progress at an accelerating rate. The amount of time it took us to go from mainframes to desktops was a lot longer than to go from desktops to laptops, or laptops to smartphones.
Which raises the question: what happens after the smartphone? Every big tech company in the world—well, the smart ones at least—has got to be looking down the road to figure out where our digital future is headed, and Apple’s no exception. The clever folks in Cupertino have clearly already been thinking about this, and you might be surprised to realize that a few of the contenders are already here—even if they’re not about to supplant your iPhone in the near future.