Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark expects 6G mobile networks to be operational within this decade, but doesn’t think smartphones will be “the most common interface” at that time.
Speaking at a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos today, Lundmark said he expects 6G to hit the commercial market around 2030. Finland-based Nokia is building telecom networks that allow phones and other internet-enabled devices to communicate with each other.
Lundmark, when asked when it thinks the world will switch from using a smartphone to using smart glasses and other face-worn devices, says it will be before 6G arrives: “Until then, the smartphone as we know it today certainly won’t be the most common interface anymore. Most of these will be processed directly into our bodies.”
While he didn’t explain the exact technology he meant with this sentence, some companies, like Elon Musk’s Neuralink, are trying to produce electronic devices that can be implanted in the brain and used to communicate with machines and other humans. On a simpler level, chips can be placed on people’s fingers and used to unlock items.
As another possibility, it is seen that US technology giants such as Meta, Google and Microsoft are working on new augmented reality headsets that could one day replace the smartphone.
Speaking at the same panel, Google CFO Ruth Porat said, “We believe that one of the biggest advantages of augmented reality is actually solving problems here on Earth. There will be things like wearing glasses and being able to translate when speaking with glasses. These are very close.” .
Google previously released an AR device called Google Glass, but this device left the market when it did not receive the expected attention.
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