The Next Big Thing: What Comes after Smartphones?

Bachelor Thesis, Master Thesis or Project Study

📌 Key facts

• Mission: Identify future technologies and devices and evaluate which is most likely to achieve as great adoption as the smartphone. • When: Start anytime. Applications are open! • How to apply: Send us an e-mail (at the end of this page) with your CV and a grade report and a tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)

Contents

• 💡 Background
• 🦾Who We Are
• 🎯 Goals
• 🎓 Profile
• 📚 Further Reading
• 📄 Requirements to any Work
• 📬 How to Apply

💡 Background

Smartphones are of highest strategic importance for organizations and countries, because with the help of smartphones on is as close to users/customers as it gets. Europe has lost this technology against the US and Asia. However, there will be innovative technologies that replace the smartphone. We want you to find out what those technologies could be!

• Which hardware will follow the smartphone? Which software?
• Which companies work/will work on these technologies?
• What are the drawbacks of the current smartphones which new technologies could improve on?
• How could German companies become the leaders in the development of this technology?

🦾Who We Are

The Chair for Strategy and Organization is focused on doing research with impact. This means we do not want to repeat old ideas and base our research solely on the research people did 10 years ago. Instead, we currently research topics that will shape the future. Topics such as Agile Organizations and Digital Disruption, Blockchain Technology, Creativity and Innovation, Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation, Diversity, Education: Education Technology and Performance Management, HRTech, Leadership and Teams. We are always early in noticing trends, technologies, strategies and organizations that shape the future, which has its ups and downs.

🎯 Goals

• Review current literature on technology adoption, innovation trends, and what made the smartphone so successful
• Identify technologies with potential
• Select a few technologies for further evaluation
• Evaluate the different technologies' benefits and drawbacks

🎓 Profile

• Reliable and self-driven
• Enthusiasm for innovation / consumer technology / scenario creation
• Ability to do sophisticated internet, desk research, and connect with practitioners
• Passion to learn more about the future and do research with impact

📚 Further Reading

What Comes After Smartphones? The Next Mobile Computing Platform Is Already Emerging

A look at the current state of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality - and why these technologies will be the building blocks for smartphone disruption. Smartphones are now hyper-personalized. With some 6 billion apps available on iPhones and Androids, smartphones serve as everything from email machines to AR-based Pokemon-catchers.

www.cbinsights.com

After the smartphone? Ambient computing could be our next digital fix. | NEXT Conference

The smartphone isn't going to die any time soon. What will die - and possibly sooner than you think - is the central role it plays in our digital life. And with it will die the idea that any device will play a central role in our digital existence.

nextconf.eu

What could your future smartphone look like in 2030?

(Image credit: Shutterstock) It's the end of the decade, and you're seeing plenty of retrospectives rounding up the last 10 years of smartphones, and tech in general - but what about the future, and the tech advances it might bring? How could smartphones change in the next 10 years?

www.techradar.com

Smartphone innovation in the third decade of the 21st century

2019 was a year of triumphs and challenges for the smartphone industry. It was a time when manufacturers encountered an almost continual decline of global shipments-but it also marked the introduction of sophisticated new features such as foldable screens and long-awaited 5G technology. Though far from mature, these early drafts are helping establish a solid...

www.technologyreview.com

📄 Requirements to any Work

We do not want your research to gather dust in some corner of a bookshelf but make it accessible to the world. Thus, we warmly encourage you to create some or all of the following:

• Infograph - visually represent some of your work (find examples here)
• Slide Deck - summarize your research and possibly present it
• Extract most important sequences from podcasts, videos, and other media
• 3-4 Tweets about the most important findings and summarizing the topic
• optional: Medium Article - let people outside university know about your research and start your personal brand

📬 How to Apply

If you are interested, please contact Prof. Dr. Isabell Welpe (e-mail below) by submitting your CV and grade report. Please also briefly outline your tentative research idea (research question, data and methods, possible outcomes with a tentative outline all in word as *.docx)

We're greatly looking forward to hearing more about you!

👉 welpe@tum.de