I've long asserted that slate-shaped smartphones are not phones, but powerful mini tablet PCs that have telephony as just one of their many functions. What we call "smartphones" are consistently used as touch-centric tablet computers and are today's most frequently used "PCs". Apple's 2007 iPhone started this phenomenon and introduced mere iterative advances until, arguably, 2017's bezel-less, home button-less iPhone X redesign. This iPhone boasted more advanced silicon, A.I., machine learning (ML) and more, and it introduced "the future of the smartphone." (Apple's wording.) Though heaped in marketing bluster, this 10-year milestone device may represent a transition point between what we categorically accept (or what history will define) as "smartphones" and the beginning of something else. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more Admittedly, 2018's iPhone X S is an iterative step for iPhone X. But iPhone's "slow and steady" progression from a 3.5-inch phone-internet device-iPod in 2007, to a 6.5-inch "mini-tablet" with PC-like processing power, impressive storage and RAM and advanced A.I., suggest Apple is evolving iPhone into the pocket PC Microsoft failed to launch. If the market embraces the powerful and expensive iPhone's X S and X S Max, perhaps Microsoft should think very hard on how to bring "Surface Andromeda" (though not yet officially confirmed) to market sooner than later. Smartphones are dead 10 years and shift

Every 10 years, computing paradigms shift. The 80s: IBM and computer hardware. The 90s: Microsoft's software and productivity. The 00s: Google and search. The 10s: Apple with mobile and apps. Eleven years after the iPhone-induced mobile revolution, we're at the beginning the next shift. According to analysts like Microsoft Technology Evangelist James Whittaker (above video) IoT powered by the intelligent edge on 5G networks is next. If true, billions of devices will eventually comprise a ubiquitous computing environment that will perceive and interact with us via A.I.-powered cognitive services. At the beginning of this ambient computing shift, mobile devices with more advanced A.I., more powerful processors and greater capacity to "perceive" environments and discern user intent via ML may segue between "smartphones" and whatever personal device we may carry or wear. Apple's iPhone X S with Bionic 12 processor may be that device. Or Surface Andromeda could be if Microsoft plays its cards right. The iPhone X S's eight-core Neural Engine is capable of five trillion calculations per second, making Apple's Core ML nine times faster than iPhone X's. This enables real-time ML tasks like pattern recognition, behavior prediction, advanced facial recognition for biometric security (Face ID) and playful AR Memojis, environment mapping (AR) and a range of A.I.-supported imaging tech. Many Android phones rival this tech but iPhone's tailored synergy of hardware and software coupled with a refined implementation of "old" and new features deliver an impactful future-focused package. Convergence