The history of technology is ripe with examples of a new disruptive technology wiping out an old way of doing things. The light bulb killed gas lanterns; color TV replaced black and white; the computer and word processor made typewriters obsolete. We are seeing a similar trend today with our Android, iOS, WP7, Palm and Blackberry devices. Simply put, these mobile devices are changing our behaviors and making the old ways of doing things obsolete.
Have you noticed what people are doing around you on the train, waiting for their friends at a bar, killing time in a cafe while sipping their late? There’s a lot of flinging birds, cutting rope, moving letter tiles, building, betting, shooting, launching, racing. And all of this is happening on their smartphones. Much of video game play is happening on tablets like the iPad, and I consider the tablet as another “smart” device, akin, or at least closely related to the smartphone — so, I’m simply grouping the two together for simplicity.
Console game sales including both portable and in-home systems are down, according to this report. This downward trend has been the norm lately, and I’m convinced it’s because there’s a massive movement to where and how people are playing video games today. The movement is towards the smartphone. And if it weren’t for some innovations like the Microsoft Kinect, I suspect this trend would be even more dramatic.
Our company, Brass Monkey, is taking this trend even further by turning people’s beloved smartphones into game controllers for their PCs, Macs and internet enabled TVs. Essentially we are connecting the smart-device to the screen to allow the phone’s sensors like its accelerometer and touchscreen to send and receive information in realtime. Think of games like those written for the Nintendo Wii, but using your phone as the controller. The in-home experience is just the beginning, as we are also working with some key partners to bring this console-like experience to locations like bars, coffee shops, malls, stadiums and more. Soon we will be seeing people everywhere pulling out their phones and going head to head with their friends in a variety of games no matter where they are. This undoubtedly will make the game console as it stands today a relic of the past.
Console games aren’t the only thing being decimated by the power of the smartphone. Most recently Cisco announced that it is discontinuing the Flip camera, a small, pocket-sized camcorder that had a huge surge in popularity this last decade. I suspect that the reason for the product being shut down is because people don’t want or need to carry around another device. I’m not alone in this viewpoint as it’s being expressed everywhere in mainstream media. Take this article from the Huffington Post as one example. The video and camera quality on smartphones are getting better with each new release. Already the iPhone 4 surpasses digital cameras that were out six or seven years ago — and it records video at 720p, rivaling the Flip’s own capabilities. In fact the iPhone 4 is set to surpass all other SLRs and point and shoots to be the number one camera used on Flickr.
Other casualties of the smartphone are numerous. The PDA is a thing of the past (notice that Palm now just makes smartphones and tablets). The netbook is another down-trending technology, with most people opting for a smartphone or a tablet. I also think we will see MP3 players like the iPod fade into a distant memory, as playback of your music collection is standard functionality on all smartphones.
The smartphone has one more victim in it’s sights, and that’s the term the smartphone itself. Soon, all phones will be “smart”, and we will probably decide to just call them cellphones, mobiles, or something entirely different. Maybe we will take the term from Star Trek, and call them Tricorders. Either way, it’s a very exciting future ahead of us!
