The global watch industry is pushing $50 billion and very few people wear them anymore. With the mobile revolution this category is really ripe for a complete overhaul. This isn't it but it's one of several starts in that direction.
People talk about how phones are getting more powerful processors each year and extrapolate that out but what's also going to happen is that the current slab phone paradigm will be challenged strongly by a combination of lighter tablets at the high end and even more miniaturized devices -- glasses, watches, headsets, armbands, etc. on the low end.
Advances in LTE networks mean your mobile chip really only has to be good enough to decode audio and video at a low ping. Those chips are going to get tiny indeed and run extremely power light.
One reason I wear my watch is because there is a builtin solar panel and it automatically corrects the time (and DST) via the radio signals every night. (The builtin "battery" would last 11 months if there was complete darkness.) The watch is also 100 metres waterproof so I never need to take it off.
It is nice to see that there are an increasing number of water resistant Android phones but nothing too mainstream yet. And battery life is typically less than 24 hours, which is also typical for this inpulse watch.
What is also desperately needed is for the size of use to be different than the size carried. For example it would be great if the phones were smaller than a matchbox in your pocket, but when you want to use them they expand to a larger size possibly via some of the mechanisms you mentioned.
Something that's already possible today: an ensemble for mobile computing instead of a monolithic device. You have a 4G wifi hotspot, a bluetooth headset, a tablet, etc. I'm curious how you could evolve that idea. Maybe with wearable computers, maybe something else.
My wife took my 3GS iphone last year when she lost her phone and for a few months I used a 3G iPad and a prepaid dumbphone we had lying around. It was a surprisingly decent setup. Because I do so much of my phoning on Skype the actual monthly charges were about half of what they were with my 3GS plan.
One thing I realized was the iPad plan is the dumb pipe plan we've all been waiting for. It's really a neat trojan horse Apple's set up with the carriers for some future disruption like an iphone nano where the bluetooth headset is the whole phone and they can sell the thing for $149 without a subsidy.
People talk about how phones are getting more powerful processors each year and extrapolate that out but what's also going to happen is that the current slab phone paradigm will be challenged strongly by a combination of lighter tablets at the high end and even more miniaturized devices -- glasses, watches, headsets, armbands, etc. on the low end.
Advances in LTE networks mean your mobile chip really only has to be good enough to decode audio and video at a low ping. Those chips are going to get tiny indeed and run extremely power light.
3D printing advances continue to astonish, check out this 330x130x100µm3 racecar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y0j191H0kY
Voice and Kinect-style motion controls are rapidly maturing as alternatives to touch input. Eye movement and thought control perhaps not that far off.
Flexible screens, projection and very high density VR screens are also maturing and offer alternatives to the current slab phone screen.