Thats going to be interesting… (considering how “uneventful” and stagnant the smartphone market currently is). In the race for selling the “next generation” product and more importantly delivering on their sporty revenue projections, manufacturers are desperate for anything innovative. Current favorites are the foldable screen, 5G and “more camera lenses” – nothing that will get the mainstream consumer ready to separate from another EUR 1.500 for a new device (early adopters excluded…) anytime soon. Even the media has reduced expectations and can be seen drooling over minor news like “going notch-less” (- to circular cutouts in the screen), bezel-less devices and “dark modes” – proving, how desperate they are to announce something new for model 127b of brand XYZ. The real causes of the “crisis”, progressively rising prices and the lack of innovation will hardly change soon. As a result, consumers will be holding on to their devices longer, skipping 3-4 product cycles…

At the same time, a wealth of value-add improvements remains untouched:
– display expansion
– desktop (PC) replacing
– synergies with (real) cameras (make the “dockable” smartphone the “brain”, storage and display of a digital camera (with peeformance optics, full format sensor and the usual controls)
– external (“button” camera/microphone combos) for more flexible capturing of content
– longer lasting, larger batteries
– change the physical handling of the large devices (ergonomics, form factor)
– finding better hardware keyboard solutions – to serve people who hate typing on a screen
– better connectivity (yes, removing the headphone jack and wireless charging are the wrong direction…)
– combine smartness of different apps into real (platform free) value add and make smartphones true assistants and efficient butlers
– better and more interfaces to control external hardware (home automation, car, motorbike, micro mobility, cameras, desktops…)
– last not least: give the customers a choice to opt out of “bloatware”, data collection, proprietary ecosystems and being spied on.

The prices of the “phones” continue to explode, neither of these trends will be reversible, the only solution can and will be an innovation leap…