Does Silicon Valley want the skin of the mobile phone?

Faced with a digital mutation future, some figures of American tech prophesy the end of the smartphone. Between brain implants, connected glasses and strategic prudence, the Silicon Valley sketches several scenarios for the post-mobile era.

Some large figures of American tech seem ready to leave the smartphones behind them, these objects which have however revolutionized and defined contemporary digital uses.

There will simply be any more in the future, predicted Elon Musk, in this spring 2025. He assures that the very idea of ​​creating a phone gives him “Want to die”. According to him, the future will see his Neuralink company and his brain implants triumph: a direct interface between the brain and the machine. This system, if it were to materialize, would replace the need for physical support – and therefore of telephone. It would then be enough to use your neurons, like what you can see in a series like Black mirror. For the time being, this scenario remains suspended between technological theory and science fiction.

Mark Zuckerberg, the pattern of Meta, is not to be outdone, although he develops a less radical vision than that of Elon Musk. The Facebook founder puts on connected glasses, boosted to augmented reality, to gradually replace smartphones.

The billions of dollars already invested in this technology, for the moment without profitability, testify to the faith of Zuckerberg in this bet. Recently, he presented a prototype of glasses, the Meta Orion, capable of displaying images superimposed on natural vision. However, the product remains too expensive to produce, and still asks questions of use: is the population ready, for example, to wear glasses to be able to communicate?

A major player in Silicon Valley seems to be resisting: Apple. At the Californian giant, the iPhone remains the golden egg hen. No rupture therefore, but rather progressive developments: this is the strategy defended by Tim Cook, boss of the apple brand. He spoke on this subject during the major annual conference for developers. Apple therefore seems to leave it to others to explore a future made of transhumanism, subcutaneous implants or connected glasses.

In the meantime, smartphones should stay in the pockets for a while.