This Is Either The Beginning Or The End Of The Smartphone Wars

There's a wave rising in the mobile technology universe, and it's not going to be easy to talk about. We're in a position where the change between each generation in smartphones is smaller, and a few major brands have taken over the industry. At the same time, we're living in a country where protectionism has us restricting international brands, but not products manufactured internationally. We're in a place where it's rare to find something really good and/or exciting to say about a new smartphone.

The biggest brands in smartphones are Samsung and Apple. That's been true basically since the iPhone and the Galaxy S were first launched. Over the past few years, competition has waned. Major competition like HTC, LG, Sony, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Motorola have either nearly gone out of business, have been acquired or merged, or have changed industries altogether.

As pointed out by The Register's Andrew Orlowski, Huawei is currently the victim of some questionable criticism and political pressure from our current congress here in the USA. While smaller China-based brand ZTE is allowed to sell phones with US-based carriers without a hassle, the far larger China-based brand Huawei isn't allowed to the party.

Have a peek at the CEO of Huawei speak at CES 2018 to hear the situation. Huawei's trusted by basically every nation around the world, save the United States. That's the situation in a nutshell.

And here we are with very, very few choices when it comes to smartphones on carrier shelves. Verizon, for example, currently has Google Pixel, iPhones, Motorola, a few LG phones, one Kyocera phone, and a couple of ASUS budget phones. And they all look almost identical.

Is this the smartphone industry that we want? Are we prepared to only have a few choices in smartphones in an industry that was a whole lot more vibrant only a few short years ago?

NOTE: This is one part of a series of articles that explore the future of the smartphone industry from a variety of perspectives. Stick around for more in-depth action in the very near future.