"Re-inventing" the smartphone

[Abdul Rahman Noor]

Lately we've been having some manufacturers and tech sites claiming they've Re-invented the phone, most notably Sony XPERIA Z and HTC One.

While these are obviously good phones with innovative features, waterproofing a phone or giving it "ultra-pixels" (whatever that means) is not really the same as re-inventing it, IMHO.

As far as I'm aware, the only company in the recent past that truly reinvented the phone was Apple in 2007 with the original iPhone:
It made touchscreens mainstream (even though that's been around since forever).
It look UI design and usability to a whole new level.
In short it completely changed the way we looked at and used phones.
That is re-inventing! And I haven't seen that happen ever again.

So this is my question:
What would it take now to truly reinvent the smartphone once again? I'm not just talking about adding octo-core processors, 4k screens, or other spec boosts. I mean something that changes the way we use phones. What do you think?

 

[martinmc78]

An earpiece that holds all your contacts and has speech recognition to allow you to make calls and send text messages. Linked to a 4.7 inch flexible display that you wear on your sleeve for media consumption, emails and games.

 

[Abdul Rahman Noor]

An earpiece that holds all your contacts and has speech recognition to allow you to make calls and send text messages. Linked to a 4.7 inch flexible display that you wear on your sleeve for media consumption, emails and games.

True, and Google Glasses (or whatever it's offically called) can be something like that - but unless it hits the market we'll have to wait.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

Apple didn't reinvent the smartphone, the re-invented what we thought of as smartphones.
Smartphones are still mobile PCs. Ever remember the 7760? That was a smartphone.

 

[martinmc78]

True, and Google Glasses (or whatever it's offically called) can be something like that - but unless it hits the market we'll have to wait.

Google glasses are an excellent concept - cant see it taking off mainstream though - really cant see hundreds of thousands of people all walking round wearing identical pairs of glasses.

 

[tekhna]

Google glasses are an excellent concept - cant see it taking off mainstream though - really cant see hundreds of thousands of people all walking round wearing identical pairs of glasses.

It'll be curious to see what happens. Excellent write-up here-- I used Google Glass: the future, with monthly updates | The Verge
I think it's way too early to prognosticate, but it could be totally and completely revolutionary. And creepy as ****.

 

[Abdul Rahman Noor]

My two cents on what could reinvent the smartphone:

Fuel cell batteries.
Regardless of the energy efficiency or massive batteries inside, pretty much every phone out there doesn't last more than a day.
If someone comes up with a phone that can last, say, a month or so, THAT would be something that changes the ball game.