As smartphone makers step up their marketing efforts to reach out to the mythical "prosumer" with cameras and music players integrated into the traditionally all-business QWERTY devices, industry pundits are already predicting the rise of smartphone functionality as next decade's status quo. "I won't be surprised that 10 years from now, the entry-level devices will have all the smartphone features you have now," said Bob Laikin, CEO of Brightpoint. "Ten years from now, kids won't buy anything less than a smartphone." Of course, there is an important distinction between smartphone owners and smartphone users, if this trend does succeed over the next ten years, I expect that gap to widen as well.
For more on the prosumer trend:
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)