Mobility

The technology ecosystem is evolving and the smartphone may no longer be the dominant consumer product. Welcome to the Age of Voice and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

As Apple’s annual September launch event draws closer, hearsay around device specs continues to swirl. When it comes to this year’s iPhone news, form factor sizing has risen the ranks to the most heavily speculated aspect. Assuming what is being reported is true, Apple is expected to debut devices on Wednesday with bigger screen sizes, which means accessory manufacturers are busy designing new peripherals.

I bought my first walkman-like music player when I was 16 years old. It was bigger than a Sony Walkman – in fact, clunky may be the best description – but it let me immerse myself in my music. The Stranglers, The Jam, and more travelled with me wherever I went. Indeed, I remember walking in the rain for several hours listening to Marillion's latest album, so I could truly get the peace and quiet to appreciate it. And, when I had saved up enough money, I finally bought a real Walkman with its full glory of Japanese technology miniaturization. Life was good.

It’s been a long time since I felt a true affinity to any of my phones. Yes, each phone comes with a slightly sharper screen and more intelligence (that I’m not sure I understand how to use), but when all is said and done, they are monolithic slabs of dullness. Until yesterday, that is, when I felt the romantic tug of a phone.

While wandering the streets of Tokyo this past weekend, I came up with a theory that a city - and the people within it - is made up of alternating layers of the strange and the expected. At the most obvious level, any foreign city is filled with strange sights, smells, language and, of course, people; all of which feels increasingly alien as you move farther from wherever you consider home to be. Sometimes, the Android OS feels exactly the same to me.

Mobile payment solutions are struggling to take off in the US market. There are lessons to be learned from China… and from Starbucks in the local market.

Last week, SpaceX received permission from the FCC to use spectrum to create a satellite-based broadband service known as Starlink. I can’t help but think that the timing of the deal was quite perfect – as SpaceX talked about superfast broadband from space, China’s old space station, the Tiangong-1, was hurtling out of control towards Earth, reminding us that this space stuff is not that easy, and doesn’t stay up there forever.

Apart from 2017 when the Note 7’s battery issues forced the company to run excessive quality checks and delay the debut of the Galaxy S8, Samsung always commands attention at Mobile World Congress, and this year was no exception.

This year’s Mobile World Congress is wrapping up and soon everyone will be heading to the airport. While the show was, as expected, heavily focused on smartphones (coming in the next blog), there was plenty of other things to see too…

I gave my daughter, Charlotte, her first phone when she was just five years old. It was hardly an appropriate age, but what’s the point of having kids if you cannot use them in the occasional social experiment.