What would a superphone mean to you and your business?

That's A Phone?

While speaking in Singapore at a conference on innovation, the president of strategy marketing at a giant Chinese tech company spoke of the coming "superphone", which is said to arrive in 2020, and bridge the confluence of multiple trends. The device is imagined as the culmination of digital intelligence working with human perceptions, with a side order of big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things.

Which all seems like a double size serving of word salad, until you start thinking it over. Five years is an eternity in phone tech, and with the speed of implementation in the IoT with beacons, not to mention the money involved here -- since obsolescence in phones seems to be a 2 to 3 year window at the top end -- there's just an absurd number of reasons why a better phone isn't a theoretical, but a given.

So let's imagine what it might mean. I'm already on record as expecting projection technology to break us out of the small screen, but the other aspect of that could mean a smaller overall unit. I don't know about you, but I miss being able to put a phone in a pocket, and a folding model also meant that butt dialing just didn't happen. It wouldn't shock me to see continued options, rather than just the same size and UI. There's really no reason why a phone should look like a phone. It could be a wearable device, tech that rides in the body, and so on.

I'd also dream of re-powering the unit as a solar event. Voice recognition should be dramatically better by then, along with coverage. Having the unit learn about me from my day to day, so that I don't tell the unit what to do on a routine basis, but just have it know and work from that schedule. Motion sensors that allow for changing UI, better auto-correct, hologram tech, having the screen "take over" any other screen so that display is more shareable... all of that seems like it should be on a 5 years or better road map.

But let's go beyond the clear path from what we can do currently, and more into theoretical. Imagine interacting with your screen without voice or hand command, with tracking to the eye level, and what that might mean to handicapped access. Rather than scrolling or manipulating with your hands, things just happen from a concentrated look, or maybe even a bio-feedback thought. Such things are possible with prosthetics now, and being able to think your PIN, or answer security questions without words or visible action, would have to be a security and UI benefit. (Along with identity checks as biometric feedback, or maybe just a retina scan. Which would also be the ideal moment to prevent unit theft, really. For your eyes only becomes very real.)

And the dreaming can go beyond that. A phone that works with self-driving cars becomes a secure device that allows for mobility without driver's license, or even a human operator for companies like Uber or Lyft. Biometric security allows for vending machine access without cash or credit card. Paying a restaurant bill can become a voice-activated command with retina scan. Any number of devices cease to exist as their own device -- flashlights, GPS, hotel key cards, car key fobs, wallets, cameras, iPods -- because it all gets rolled into the phone. Maybe even gaming consoles, monitors, and so on.

From an advertising and marketing standpoint, it stops being mobile-friendly or mobile-first. It's just, well, everything, because the phone is the gateway to all of the interaction that you ever get with your consumer, and if the data is truly two-way within reason, maybe we finally get to the day when the only ads you ever see are relevant to your interests... and in your active consideration set, rather than something you've already completed.

Oh, and just to make sure I'm not seen as only imagining the good? Massive issues involving consumer privacy and safety, as hacks of the units get you to untapped potential for criminals. An increasing polarization between economic elites and everyone else. A nightmare for teachers of all stripes. An HMO situation where the phone pushes users through the system, maybe even at a remote-only level, or with proactive prescriptions referrals. Unit or system failures that cause out and out panic. A race to a job-free economy, since so much capability has the potential to just remove jobs. (Consider, if you will, what happened to cameras, film, and film development in your lifetime.)

The superphone is, in all likelihood, just something that will happen, for good or ill, forcing change in its wake. Being able to proactively work towards that potential isn't just something good marketing and ad pros do. It's also what will save your clients, as well as continue your billing. Act accordingly.

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