Smartphones Are No Longer That Lighter

The relationship between humans and tools is actually a lot like smoking. A lighter is the tool, lighting up is the action, and finishing the cigarette is the result. Then e-cigarettes came along; the tool changed, but the relationship didn't—you still have to press it yourself and take a puff yourself. Smartphones follow the same logic. From feature phones to smartphones, tools have kept iterating, but the relationship between people and phones has always been "people operating phones." Now Nubia says they want to shift to "phones doing things for people," which is like swapping a lighter for autonomous driving—you skip even the ignition action entirely, letting the machine complete the whole loop for you.