It was eight years ago when Google delivered the gadget-man’s wet dream: The Google Glass. My company at the time had a pair so we could try them. It was immediately clear that glasses aren’t the same product as smartphones. The first Google glass UX was very poor. And even if newer “glass” products can solve some issues, they will never fully replace a touch screen.
Arguing that phones will be replaced by glasses, to me, sounds like arguing you’re going to do your office work using Alexa. It just doesn’t make sense.
Despite being a more than 10 year old iPhone parody it is pretty spot on even today. Very little has happened in smartphone land. (this is also the origin of the "shut up and take my money"-meme)
It’s pretty easy to see how they can plan for a replacement like this. If they have cutting edge money is no object prototype hardware, it’s easy to see how they can extrapolate long timelines like 10 years. They steered through the iPhone replacement of the iPod remember. It’s pretty easy to imagine they are internally planning one or more potential future replacement devices that might in turn supplant the iPhone.
I can believe it. It has to be a monumentally good product, a 10x product in startup and VC parlance if you will, to replace the iPhone, just as the iPhone replaced the iPod and other non smart phones. If anyone can do it, it's Apple (or Oculus I guess, we shall see).
