Ericsson Reveals the Future: Good News for AI, Bad News for Smartphones

December 14, 2015

The sample was 100,000 people. That’s a lot. I have no clue how these folks were selected or how the data were analyzed. I do know the sponsor, Ericsson. As you may know, has realigned itself and as a result has its shares trading at about $US9.00 as I write this post. Revenues and profits have been flat. I once owned a Sony Ericsson mobile phone. Exciting in a Swedish sort of way.

I read “Smartphones to Die Out ‘within Five Years’, Says New Study.” The main point of the study is to outline the future based on survey results.

The most interesting finding was that smartphones are going to be gone geese in 60 months. I find this an interesting statement. I am not sure how I will make a telephone call when I am in some far flung country to check on my beloved dogs, Max and Tess. According to the write up’s interpretation of the Ericsson survey data, the answer is artificial intelligence. Well, okay.

The write up also presented the 10 trends for 2016. Sigh. It is that time of year when pundits, struggling commercial enterprises, and mid tier consultants display their fortune telling expertise.

Here are the top 10 trends. Be aware that I don’t know what some of these expressions mean, and I am not too motivated to figure out the gobbledygook. You, gentle reader, may have the gumption to tackle the notion of “internables.” I don’t.

The Ericsson predictions are:

The lifestyle network effect. No clue.
Streaming natives. Geofeedia will celebrate this I believe.
AI ends the screen age. Er, how am I going to get information?
Virtual gets real. No reference to the adult industry which may be the one to watch.
Sensing homes. Ah, ha. Nest and Watson in the fridge. Well, maybe.
Smart commuters. Will these folks ride in Uber, autonomous vehicles, or hyperloops? Here in rural Kentucky, mules and automobiles are like to remain popular modes of transportation. Commuters riding mules may want to keep their wits about them when moving down the information superhighway.
Emergency chat. Yep, 911 is a bit of a mess as a form of emergency chat.
Internables. No clue.
Everything gets hacked. “Everything.” Those categorical affirmatives are slippery. One exception and the argument is revealed as specious.
Netzien journalists. Oh, like this blog?

I have some—well, actually dozens—of observations. Let me highlight a couple.

First, devices are likely to be needed. If my Samsung refrigerator functions as a phone, isn’t the Samsung refrigerator just a larger version of bloated smartphones?

Second, sixty months is not very long. Watson will just be building up steam, and the Alphabet Google thing will be in court. Amazon will be tangled in trucks, drones, and legal hassles. For the unencumbered company like an Ericsson, perhaps these trends will revitalize the firm’s organic growth. Buying stuff from Nortel and Microsoft does not seem to be providing much lift.

Stephen E Arnold, December 14, 2015

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, News, Statistics

Comments

One Response to “Ericsson Reveals the Future: Good News for AI, Bad News for Smartphones”

actually fifa series on December 14th, 2015 9:44 am

actually fifa series

Ericsson Reveals the Future: Good News for AI, Bad News for Smartphones : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.