They’re radios, personal trainers, word processors, cameras, credit cards, and more — they’ve left a long list of redundant gadgets in their wake, replacing a vast amount of our everyday physical objects.
So what’s rusting in the gutter thanks to the smartphone, and what might be next?
Alarm Clocks
The repetitive beep of the humble alarm clock is a far less familiar sound. Smartphones, plugged in by the bed to charge overnight, have now adopted the role of the morning wake-up call. They offer more than the simple beep, and their ability to update directly from mobile networks so there’s no need to adjust when daylight savings hits, means that smartphones are vastly more customisable than their old AA powered counterparts. With apps allowing you to track your sleep and figure out the best time to wake you up, the days of the alarm clock are numbered.
Cameras
The days of the DSLR are nowhere near over however, with the weight of Nikon and Canon proving resilient, but the compact point-and-shoot are in jeopardy. Smartphones have all but surpassed the quality of cheaper cameras. Apple’s iPhone 6 is the most popular camera in the Flickr Community, with the percentage of the community using point-and-shoot cameras decreasing. We’re all about immediacy, and people want to share their photos and videos directly from their device to Instagram / Flickr/ Facebook / Email, without needing to upload them to a computer and process them first.
Music
Playing music on a phone was once practically unheard of — MP3 players have been around since 1997, but mobile phones didn’t gain the ability to play music until the launch of the Siemens SL45 in 2001. When the iPhone arrived in 2007, things changed, and smartphones have become the go-to music player, with some of them light enough and durable enough to be used when exercising.
Satnavs
Satnavs were a thing once, often getting everyone lost, but smartphones now do the navigating job better. Even manufacturers like TomTom and Navigon have realised the connected, multi-function tool is the future, releasing satellite navigation apps on smartphones. We’re not just talking Google Maps. Although, coupled with free tools like Google Maps that are complete with live traffic reports, traditional personal navigation devices are on the threatened list.
So what might we see less of in the future?
Keys
We won’t be opening our front doors with our phones anytime soon, but other types of keys may be changing. The Hilton hotel company announced it would be expanding from its digital check-in system to mobile-enabled room keys. Now travellers check-in, choose and access their room upon arrival entirely via the HHonors app on their smartphone.
Personal trainer
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, they say. The health and fitness data that Apple’s HealthKit, Google’s Fit and Samsung’s SAMI collect could make your smartphone better informed than your GP. Why get a personal trainer when you can get all the motivation and stats you need to get in shape from your smartphone? Popular free apps like RunKeeper utilise your smartphone’s GPS and other sensors to track your activity and provide helpful feedback.
Money
Chip-and-PIN saw an end to credit and debit card signatures, now smartphones could soon do the same to physical credit cards and even traditional cash. Both Apple and Google have made big steps in this area. Apple with their Apple Pay platform and Google with their own Google Wallet. Both systems allow you pay for goods and services in a number of locations. Contactless smartphone payment is certainly set to grow in popularity with payments expected to reach 9.9 billion by 2018. Soon tapping your smart phone against the contactless reader will be as familiar as reaching for your wallet.
There are an overwhelming number of physical everyday objects which, whilst maybe not completely killed off by the smartphone just yet, have been made all but redundant by the one device everyone now seems to have. Surrounded by the possibility of a future with less things and less-waste, and with more immediacy and functionality for our on-the-go lifestyles, why would we go back to having countless objects for different purposes, when we could just use our smartphones?
As Apple says, “there’s an app for that.”
