True Ventures: Smartphones May Be Obsolete Within a Decade as Wearables and AI Interfaces Rise

Jon Callaghan, co-founder of True Ventures (managing ~ $6B), predicts smartphones could become largely obsolete within a decade as more natural, less intrusive interfaces — especially wearables and AI-driven devices — gain traction. True Ventures’ investment thesis prioritizes products that enable new human behaviors rather than incremental hardware improvements; past successes include Fitbit, Ring and Peloton. Market signals supporting the shift include ~2% annual smartphone growth versus double-digit gains in wearable segments, US smartwatch penetration rising from 14% to 35% since 2019, a 42% YoY increase in smart ring shipments (2024), and >50% voice assistant adoption for specific tasks. True Ventures backs Sandbar, a voice-activated “thought companion” ring focused on capturing and organizing voice notes, founded by ex-CTRL-Labs team members Mina Fahmi and Kirak Hong. Callaghan highlights AI as the next major computing wave and foresees large value at the application/interface layer despite capital-intensive infrastructure concerns. For traders: the article underscores a strategic pivot in tech investment toward AI-enabled interfaces and wearables, implying funding flow and M&A activity could shift away from smartphone-centric ecosystems toward specialized hardware, AI applications, and wearable-adjacent tokens and stocks.