Smartphones of the future: flexible designs and new uses

The Lenovo CPlus is a prototype smartphone that can roll up and be worn around your wrist.

With Gartner predicting worldwide annual sales of more than 1.5 billion units, here a few ways that smartphone devices could evolve in the coming years.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007 (also known as the "iPhone 2G"), it broke all the codes of the mobile phone market at the time. The device caused a sensation with its 3.5-inch touch screen, which could be used without a stylus thanks to multi-touch technology. It offered Edge, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and ran its own operating system. The iPhone was even picked as the year's "Best Invention" by Time magazine.

Little by little, the smartphone -- defined as a cell phone with a touchscreen, connected to the internet and able to be loaded with various applications -- took over from more basic flip-phone handsets with limited functionality.

In 10 years, no other model has shaken up the market as much as the original iPhone. Several technologies have since seen the light of day, such as rival operating system Android, intelligent personal assistants (Siri, Google Now, etc.) and the first curved screens (LG G-FLex, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, etc.). However, today's smartphones all remain relatively similar.

Smartphones and augmented reality

In the future, smartphones could become more flexible thanks to bendable or folding screens. This technology has already been developed, and various projects and prototypes have been showcased over the last few years, notably from Samsung, which could launch a first "folding" smartphone from as soon as 2017.

Smartphones that can roll up to wear around the wrist could be on the market by 2020, according to Lenovo, which demoed a prototype at the Lenovo Tech World event in June 2016. This could make smartwatches completely obsolete.

Other changes in store are likely to include the progressive removal of buttons, the development of various sensors and the integration of new uses. Augmented reality could be at the heart of developments in the smartphone market. The LenovoPHAB 2 Pro is, for example, the first "phablet" boasting compatibility with the technology. Tomorrow's smartphones could even serve as universal remotes for piloting all the connected devices in a user's home.