Seems more like the smartphone is becoming compulsory as e.g., people want to use more secure messaging systems like Signal, or banks insist on apps instead of websites (maybe for security reasons, maybe something more nefarious?)
In any case, we really need a true open platform, so that we aren't dependent on potentially hostile companies like Google and Apple.
Like. 20, 30, 40 years from now will we still just have Android and iOS ran by the echos of Google and Apple?
I would like to think with the spread of tech, and now maybe AI we could end up with 100s of hardware manufacturers, with dozens of OSs, some open and some close, all interacting with each other over well defined APIs.
I think the first step to that is solving the server problem, and or the addressable problem.
Today we are locked into these streams because it’s. It easy for normal people to get a server to handle receiving messages and notifications of generic sort and direct device messages are not possible because we don’t have a free and open way to register my device is on line.
I don’t have any real solutions for any is these problems as they all often require a constant source of funding.
The one I think will probably allow us to break free in some sort of p2p mesh overlay that allows messages to safely be relayed by untrusted devices.
We're pretty rapidly nearing the end of transistor scaling with currently widely used technologies and materials.
Something's got to give, from a device manufacturing point the thing _consumers_ need the most is probably cost. Keep the feature size, slash the cost so they can be sold more transistors.
Size doesn't even really matter that much anymore, but power consumption for work absolutely does. Possibly better interconnect technology and integration into larger physical packages (smaller overall footprint since all the big wires got taken out).
Who knows if someone wins a lottery of scientific discovery for either a more cost effective way to do stuff we already know how to do other ways, or for something completely new that breaks open space for new ideas.
We can't have that. The banks insist on trusted*1 platforms for their apps and their apps are increasingly mandatory. I expect that not only cash use will be restricted*2 as it happend in many other parts of the world, but bank cards will be obsolete soon too, replaced by the unavoidable user-tracking app.
*1 by them
*2 in my country, it is illegal to pay more than ~2000 euro in cash to a company as a natural person, or more than ~1000 euro in cash between two companies. Allegedly, it's to prevent tax fraud, but the transactions data is oh-so-very-good at profiling people!
> but bank cards will be obsolete soon too, replaced by the unavoidable user-tracking app.
As bad as the tracking part is, we're already getting profiled and sold based on card purchases anyway. Smart phone based payment does increase the amount of collectible data, but if it kills the practice of card skimming, that's probably a net win for society. I've never been hit by a skimmer and always tap to pay or check the terminal before putting my card in. Failing that, I use a CC where I can chargeback fraud and it becomes someone else's problem, rather than debit where the money comes off my account directly. I know people that have had their accounts drained by thieves using skimmer data, usually at gas pumps.
And all that could be avoided by simply demagnetizing the strip. Or convincing the banks to deprecate that kind of cards and readers. I can't imagine why they didn't do it already.
In any case, we really need a true open platform, so that we aren't dependent on potentially hostile companies like Google and Apple.