The appearance of mobile (cell) phones have evolved almost beyond recognition over the years. They were once the size of a house brick, and at one point they became as small as a match box. However, phones began to take on new more advanced roles such as Internet browsing and being MP3 players, and this led to something of a turnaround for handset sizes. Many of the newer ’smart phones’ benefit from better design and functionality, but suffer from bulkiness when compared to lots of their predecessors. However, this is soon set to change.
As mobile Internet connectivity becomes increasing more widespread and the speeds continue to increase almost daily, there is a dwindling need to store all your applications and files on the phone itself. What would happen is that information and programs would be streamed into the phone from an external source only when you request them. This then allows phones to essentially act like shells, that can be used for different things at different times, just by feeding different information into them.
How this will work is that you will have a central hub, either at home or hosted with an external company. Your handset will be able to ‘login’ easily to this hub, regardless of where you are in the world, and access all the files and programs that are stored on it. You will still need a certain amount of hardware in the phone, such as a camera and other electrical components, but you will be able to save huge amounts of space where memory, processors and mini fan accessories would normally be found. This means then that phones could be not much bigger than cable ties and you could even wear them as accessories such on a necklace or as a wrist-band. Breaking free of the weight and size that phones have had to comply with in years gone by could spawn a whole new era for them.