Death of a smartphone: 4G could spell the end of the mobile as we know it

Faster mobile networks - 4G and even 5G - unlock the prospect of shifting the OS off the handset and turning it into a thin client. Could they pave the way for the end of mobile hardware as we know it?
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There's been a lot of talk about 4G and the coming of 5G, and what these networks will let us do in streaming HD video on the go, downloading apps, and so on.

But there are far more inventive uses of super-fast connectivity that could see the way we use phones, or even phones themselves, transformed.

Nokia Lumia 920
Could faster networking and the cloud put paid to smartphones as we know them today? Image: Ben Woods

Imagine a world where, from the minute you switch on your phone, it's constantly connected to a network delivering 50-100Mbps minimum downstream. Yes, data transfers are faster; more than that though, there's the means for a whole shift in the market waiting to happen, if vendors want it.

What if this ultra-fast networking did away with mobile hardware as we know it? What if, every time you switched on your phone, it downloaded the OS image instantly from the cloud, effectively turning your handset into a thin client?

What if, every time you switched on your phone, it downloaded the OS image instantly from the cloud, effectively turning your handset into a thin client?

From a security and updates perspective, moving to a wholly cloud-hosted model would make things a whole lot simpler, cheaper and more straightforward to manage. For you, it would mean that you would never lose your phone again -- even when you lose your phone.

In fact, imagine never thinking of a handset as 'your' phone again at all. In the world of the cloud, all thin-client mobiles could be created equal. Forgot or lost your phone? No problem, just pick up any other handset lying around, and you can have it all there again in a second.

Go one step further, and you wouldn't need a handset at all. Any internet-connected screen would do -- PC, smart TV, whatever -- and you'd have all of your content, all of your apps, all of your contacts: your phone.

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This page contains a single entry by Staff published on December 9, 2012 11:35 AM.

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