Are Smartphones Becoming Future-Proof?

Whenever a new smartphone is announced, everyone immediately looks back to the previous iteration and magically realizes how low-tech and poorly built their once beloved companion has become. It's like we all share an epiphany and slap ourselves for ever thinking our "out dated" phones could keep us happy for the foreseeable future.

Take the iPhone 5.  When I first un-boxed my new iPhone 5 from AT&T, I was dumbfounded by its beautiful design and powerful performance. I looked at my iPhone 4, which had been my companion for 2 full years, and forgot how much it had changed my life and focused only on the negatives; the size, weight, camera and screen.

But every time a new phone is unleashed unto the world, consumers hope that this will be the device they can be happy with for at least 2 years (if not more, to save money).  But the manufacturers and designers want buyers to keep buying new phones, so it seems they rarely attempt to 'future-proof' their devices. Take the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4. These are clearly the best smartphones available (for Android, at least). But they are running Snapdragon 600 processors, which will be outmatched by the Snapdragon 800 processors which begin mass production next month.  And considering the Galaxy S4 has implemented a boatload of new gesture-based features, there will probably need to be a Galaxy S5 to smooth out all the kinks in this new hardware-software combo attack.

However, I also look at the future of mobile technology as a continuous iteration of upgrades where the window for improvement is gradually shrinking, until a break-through in battery, screen or processor technology changes the game. What this means for the near future is that smartphone owners are beginning to have less reason to sell their "out-dated" phone for the "next big thing." If you own a Galaxy S3, a large portion of the software features on the S4 will eventually be ported to your device. The same goes for the Galaxy Note 2. If you own an iPhone 5, the new software features of the upcoming (someday) 5S will surely be given to you as well.

And is there really a noticeable difference between an 8 megapixel camera and a 13 megapixel camera? The only situation I can see is when you show your images on a large TV screen, but how often to people do that?

Yes, the HTC One implemented a complete design change and a revamping of the HTC Sense skin over Android. But what can possibly be better about the HTC One....second generation?

Of course hindsight is 20-20, and maybe a year from now everyone will look back on the Galaxy S4 with disgust, or at least disappointment. But my money's on the Galaxy S5 being so marginally better, that many people will remain loyal to their current 2012-2013 phone, maybe for the first time in their lives.