Introduction
“Mobile has completely transformed the way we order food, buy groceries, book trips, stream content, game, and shop — making our lives easier every day and transforming nearly every industry in the process. It is a vital channel for interacting with consumers, and companies that succeed in mobile are reaping financial rewards.” – Lexi Sydow
Global dominance of smartphones
The dominance of smartphones has monumental significance with global use projected to hit 3.8 billion by 2021. In just over a decade, our smartphone use has become so normalized that last year our phones generated 56% of the world’s internet traffic. Smartphones have had a truly expansive and irreversible impact on the world’s economy, industries, creativity, and communities. With everything from games to dating, to transport and travel, then finance, health and social change — the connectivity, efficiency and communication smartphones enable mean they’ve eclipsed tech to shape our lives irreversibly.
Competitive development and the future of smartphones
Over the last decade, we’ve seen tech companies race to bring the most innovative, ergonomic, functional and aesthetically-driven options to market. Beyond the features of the phones themselves, we’ve seen the emergence and dominance of touch screens, the rise of social media, disruptive billion-dollar unicorn start-ups like Uber and Air BnB, and the proliferation of the Internet of Things, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
One of the most divisive aspects of smartphone development in recent years is 5G and the geo-political significance of its implementation. In 2020 and beyond, its power is expected to transform smartphone and computer technology with more consistent, widespread, and powerful global connections. With this new era of 5G and bandwidth, it’s to be expected that we will see increased functionalities, mobility, and connected users.
Reflect on this lightning-fast decade of tech development
Travel through this interactive timeline below from Cadoo about Smartphone Innovations of the 2010s to see how the market has evolved and learn more about the trends in mobile tech.