Have you ever found yourself using your phone to complete important tasks while sitting in front of your computer screen? You’re not alone. Smartphones are at the point now that we can often get things done faster and easier on our little handheld screens than we can on the much larger and higher-powered desk computer.
Phones are a cool part of life, but we want them to be an even bigger part of life. The tech companies that make, or help make them, want the same.
Being exciting isn’t enough anymore. Smartphones have amazed us since they came into existence in 1994. The first iPhone was created in 2007, and over the years of improvement it’s been nothing but wow moment after wow moment. We’re a little desensitized to it at this point. We expect them to wow us. In fact, it would be weird if they didn’t keep getting more incredible–better cameras, longer batteries, thinner, more durable, contain more memory, etc. At the same time, these features have reached a plateau.
Smartphone Wallets
Aware of this, smartphone companies have turned their efforts toward making smartphones even more of a necessity to consumers’ lives. For example, smartphone wallets can replace physical wallets. You could grab your phone and head out for the day. The stores we shop at are happy to comply, only sometimes you might come across a place where you still can’t pay by simply holding your phone near the payment terminal. This works through Near-Field Communication (NFC), a subset of RFID technology. Over a trillion dollars worth of transaction per year is happening via phone wallets. Over 1.3 billion people currently use them. Analysts have predicted that as much as half the population could be using mobile wallets by 2025.
Smartphone as the Central Operator
Furthermore, phones are becoming the central operator for all our other devices. Apple, Samsung, and Google have come out with smartwatches, TVs, and other devices that all work together with their brand. Our devices are all connected, and the smartphone is the place where it all ties together. In this aspect, smartphones are going from nice-to-have to need-to-have, regardless of all the bells and whistles they can perform. With more and more of our devices and possessions going “smart,” from our homes to our health monitors, we need a phone that can reliably control all it.
Smartphones and Inventory Management
There is another example that is a little closer to home for Flowtrac. In some cases, these new and improved smartphones are making it possible for warehouses to use mobile phones to scan barcodes and operate their inventory management system. They could take the place of laser scanners to cut down on extra hardware, if staff already hand mobiles issued by the company. Smartphones make it easier to handle functions that have been reserved for the desktop in the past.
Impressive features like HD video streaming, at this point, is old hat; now we’re waiting to see how new phones can help us manage our lives. The future of phones is about expanding their functionality. Tech companies and the potential buyers want to place even more responsibility on our phones. As phones increase in complexity, they make our lives simpler.