Communications Device Predictions for 2035

Feeling like a tech prophet today. So I'm going to make some silly predictions about the course of the phone and computing industry.

First, current trends, but optimistic version:

By 2035, pocket phones of all types will be replaced by Apple Watches displaying on slimmed-down Google Goggles. Voice control will become the norm, relieving us of the burden of keyboards. The microphone will be a jewel on a neckband.

Various fashions in neckbands, watches, and spectacles will drive the industry.

Tablets will also disappear, being replaced by LED projectors about the size of the old flip-phone, capable of projecting a clear image on any reasonably near-white surface. The phone will be the input and control device.

These changes will be enabled by optical CPUs developed jointly by AMD, IBM, and Intel. These CPUs will still emulate the 8086 instruction set, but at effective speeds in excess of 5 GHz.

All homes and office buildings will have wireless access points running WiMAX and Bluetooth. Bluetooth v. 10 will be commonly called Redeye wireless.

Wait, I said optimistic. So the optical CPU would have to be developed by a consortium of ARM, AMD, IBM, NXP, and the Motorola subdivision of Google. It will be a derivative of the 6809, but with 64-bit address registers and 32-bit accumulators (and DMA built-in). And it will be able to emulate a Tandy Color Computer 2 or 3 running ECB or OS-9 at effective speeds in excess of 15 GHz. Other processors will be emulated in software at GHz speeds.

Motorola will un-mothball the ultra-wideband standard it was working on in the early 2000s, and this UWB technology will replace both Wifi and Bluetooth.

The software that runs on these will have a common run-time for all ordinary applications that does away with the smash-vulnerable stack frame, separating the return address stack from the parameter stack and putting them in completely distinct address spaces.

Forth- and Lisp-like languages will become more common.

C will still be prominent, but the vernacular will assume the split stack and no stack frame, enabling non-scalar return values in the standard. Variables global to a namespace will inherently be accessed via counting monitors.

The programs that run on these devices will become very customizable, and the phone owner will regain control of his or her devices.

More realistic version:

Global warming and other influences will cause the market to stagnate, and development of phones and computing devices will flatten out.

Flip-phones with smart-phone CPUs and memory sizes, and with the means of connecting keyboards and displays, will become more common.

Broken phones and case fashion will drive the hardware industry.

Intel will buy ARM, and Microsoft will buy Google, and claim to have bought Linux.

Apps will remain difficult to customize, and the vendor will take increasing control of the devices.

In 2035, openBSD will be the last free operating system available.

Pessimistic version:

Oh, never mind about the pessimistic version. The realistic version is pessimistic enough.