The future of communication, personal computing and entertainment

Most of the current devices running our current life like a smartphone, laptops, tablets, smart TVs etc will cease to exist in as little as a decade. the whole world will converge to a single smart watch like strip which will serve the purpose of a personal entertainment device, internet browsing, telecommunication as well as a laptop. 

This is the era of transformation

The world today is drastically different from about a couple of decades ago when connectivity and mobile communications were a luxury. You would come across many Internet Cafe set ups or places which had phone services for intended users. A large part of the ruling world was still working on getting on the internet or basic issues like building communication lines. The world of entertainment was dominated by cable providers which were charging exorbitant amounts of money for providing basic entertainment services on a monthly/ yearly basis. A laptop was a luxury item and most of the world was working with a desktop with limited computing capacities.

Fast forward to today and we see a completely different world which is progressing at a pace unheard of ever before. Most of us are struck by the Internet Bug, armed with a smartphone and a convertible laptop/ tablet which enables both our personal and professional lives on a daily basis. We have entertainment at our fingertips with these devices and even smart TVs which can get on the internet to provide the best of entertainment. The cable providers have been seamlessly replaced by streaming services of Netflix, Stars, Hulu, Amazon Prime etc.

We are gradually moving into the era of connected devices where we will all have smart homes with every activity in the house automated and well coordinated with each other like a coffee programmed into the coffee machine the moment we come back from work which also gets inputs from the smart watch on our health and other factors like traveling time from work, sleep required, future travel schedule etc.

We are also moving into the age of complete and intelligent automation which will not only enable our personal lives but also transform business all over the world.

Where is the future

While most of the above is going to continually improve to make our lives much more coordinated, there might be an additional step of improvement needed: the step of integration.

Our lives today are highly dependent on the devices we use on a daily basis like our smartphones, tablets, laptops, smart watches etc. We need to not only carry them around but also ensure their security both physical and cyber. This is sometimes cumbersome and also has huge cost implications on all of us. Physical Maintenance and cybersecurity for each one of them again has an additional cost component in the regular maintenance of these devices.

The time might be right to start thinking of one integrated device which uses a virtual projection to enable it to work like a tablet, laptop, mobile phone as well as a personal entertainment device. This device might be a simple strap-on over our wrists much like the smart watch of today with a capability to project a screen in front of us along with a keyboard for us as needed. It will allow us to work on our official duties when used like a laptop and will also allow us to call people using its communication capabilities. This will conveniently work like a TV using its virtual screen and browsing capabilities when used for personal entertainment and will also allow us to save our data and documents on Cloud. Security for this device will get integrated into one device and the attack surface for any individual will reduce by 5-6 times since all of the exposure an individual has on the internet will be limited to only one device and not 5-6 like anyone has in the current times.

Imagine air travel without the need to carry a laptop, its various adapters, a tablet and the few smartphones we carry. It will also reduce the cost of maintenance we incur on all these devices not only for regular work but also for upgrades when new releases are done in the market.

The time might be right for some of our futuristic companies to think of integrating our lives into a single device and take a clue from some of the issues an individual faces when he is on the internet on a regular basis using it for various things like professional work, internet, entertainment and communication.