Nokia CEO says new technology will make smartphones extinct by 2030

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark made the remark at the World Economic Forum. (Image credit: @PekkaLundmark/Twitter)

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark has said that with the advent of newer technology, smartphones may not stay relevant in the next 10 years. 2030.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, he said that 6G would arrive by the end of 2030 but it could make smartphones obsolete.

“By then, the smartphone as we know it today will not be the most common interface. Many of these things will be built directly into our bodies,” Pekka Lundmark said.

The Nokia CEO added that people would prefer devices such as smart glasses and those worn on the face to smartphones.

Interestingly, while India is still testing 5G, Elon Musk’s Neuralink has been already working on creating brain-computer interfaces. Last year, Musk had shared a video of a macaque playing “Mind Pong” using chips embedded on either side of its brain. The nine-year-old animal was trained to move a joystick but it was controlling the paddle simply by thinking about moving its hands.

Commenting on Neuralink, Musk had said in April 2021, "First Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs. Later versions will be able to shunt signals from Neuralinks in brain to Neuralinks in body motor/sensory neuron clusters, thus enabling, for example, paraplegics to walk again."

First @Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2021

But, how does one look with a chip implanted in the head? "The device is implanted flush with skull and charges wirelessly, so you look & feel totally normal," Musk had clarified.