The Mobile World Congress, like any good fair, tries to present us with the best possible now and a vision of what will come next. Which translates into a lot of questions, particularly about the future of phones, such as:
“What if phones, but controlled with your eyes?”
“What if phones were made fashionable?”
“What if phones, but in your face? Or in your car?
“What if phones change color for no reason?”
Honestly, this is what trade shows are made of and I love it. Where else are you going to see a transparent laptop? Definitely not at Best Buy.
But this year's show seemed focused on one question in particular: What does it look like if our mobile technology fits our lives a little better? I saw many answers to this question over the course of a few days, from the extremely literal to the wildly impractical. And as expected, I have many more questions than answers about it.
Let's get one thing out of the way: the phone without apps has apps. For now. At Deutsche Telekom's bright magenta booth, I got a demo of ai/#/”>a “smartphone without apps” from a startup called Brain.ai. The long-term vision is to have no apps, but what founder and CEO Jerry Yue shows me is an interface that sits on top of the operating system, almost like a digital assistant. It starts out as a sort of blank page, and once you ask a question or make a request, the system creates an interface fit for purpose.
The user interface also changes as you interact with it: tap a search result and request a video, and it will react by adding a video module in the middle of your results page. Do not jump between web pages or applications; everything flows on a single page. Yue explains this by comparing it to the early mainstream Internet, where instead of starting with Google and just searching for what we needed, we went to Yahoo and looked at topic categories and drilled down until we found what we wanted.
Do not jump between web pages or applications; everything flows on one page
That makes a lot of sense to me. Through wizards and things like Snippets, the operating system and search interfaces have gobbled up basic functions that you would once have turned to a dedicated website or app for. If I need to calculate the currency conversion, I don't download a special currency conversion app or, God forbid, Do mathI just type it into Google or ask Siri.
It's the same reason why many students today don't think in terms of file structures like we used to: instead of browsing through a directory of nested drawers, everything is in one big bucket. An interface that is built around your needs seems like the next logical step.
Motorola's foldable phone concept answers the same question in a truly literal sense. The device is not a final product and it is highly unlikely that it will be, but Bendy Phone (my name, not Motorola's) is a kind of metaphor for what Brain.ai wants to achieve: What if our mobile technology does not Was it so rigid? ? What if it could shapeshift and adapt to what we need right now?
No Bendy Phone was damaged
Bending the Bendy Phone felt wrong every time I did it. Phones are more durable than before, but we are still used to taking care of them to some extent. Grabbing a phone and pressing it with your thumbs until it bends back feels like you're doing something you shouldn't. But it worked and no Bendy Phone was damaged.
For demonstration purposes, Motorola paired the phone with an adjustable magnetic band so it can be worn around your wrist like a watch. It's extremely difficult to imagine this being the future form our smartphones will take, but it's an interesting exercise. Plus, I love it a bit, and boy, has this phone ever committed to the bit.
For a phone showcase, wearables really made an appearance at this year's Mobile World Congress. The Humane ai pin made an appearance, and while there are a lot of interesting technological ideas wrapped up in this fascinating device, it still seems like a wildly impractical way to check your email or get directions to a coffee shop.
The Galaxy Ring (notably, which also isn't a phone) was one of the big stories to come out of this phone-focused trade show. But it's mobile technology in the truest sense of the phrase, and it's a promising extension of the smartwatch that's less intrusive and better suited to everyday life, for people who want that kind of thing.
The prevailing concept could be a combination
Ridiculous tech demos aside, it seems we're at an inflection point in mobile technology: our Yahoo era is coming to an end. Our phones and wearables ought integrate better into our daily lives, right? However, there is still no clear winner, just many competing visions.
The concept that wins could be a combination of things I saw at this year's show: wearable devices with lasers, assistants controlled by artificial intelligence, phones with fluid interfaces and flexible screens. For now, we've seen some fun technology at this year's show and I think we forgot that devices can just be fun.
As for what will come next, it's hard to say. But in the meantime I have many questions.
Photography by Allison Johnson/The Verge
