India, Sept. 14 -- In 1915, Ed Klein, a seller of harnesses, put out an advertisement in Lawrence Journal World, a local newspaper in Kansas. It was an appeal to people to not buy this new gadget called the car, and continue buying horses for transportation. It mentioned a horse named Dobbin (added to give the appeal emotional draw, a classic advertising trick) who was very low maintenance, needed no expensive fossil fuels, and didn't depreciate as an asset on the balance sheet. The appeal was desperate. Henry Ford had already come up with the concept of assembly line manufacturing in 1913, and by the time of Klein's ad, he could produce a car in 93 minutes flat. He famously said, "If I ask people what they want, they would say faster horses." He was right. Much of the research over the 100 years preceding Ford's statement was on making horses faster, stronger, and, probably, poop less. The stench of horse manure was so bad, cities must have felt like marketing department meeting rooms. The key issue was that the horses of 1877 were barely distinguishable from the horses of 1876. Four percent faster maybe? One would never know. Hundred years later, the same is happening with smartphones. Apple just launched their latest iteration, iPhone 17, touted as some sort of innovation leap. But the moment it was announced, Apple stock tumbled 3.2%, which is like losing $10 billion. Markets were clearly unimpressed with incremental upgrades. Historically, Apple events, which launch the iPhone n-th phone, are a great time to buy the iPhone n-1. But most newer phones just seem to rearrange camera lens placement on the back panel of the previous phone. And that's why I think smartphones have peaked. Any subsequent resolution upgrade, speed upgrade, or camera clarity bump won't be distinguishable to the naked eye. All you get is more and more adjectives. Adjectives don't move your stock price upward, nouns do. Sadly, phones are like a screwdriver now. It's done. Anything more is an overkill. A common refrain is you can never write off technology, a usual example shared is of the time when Charles H Duel, the US Patent Office commissioner, said in 1899, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Barely four years later, the Wright brothers achieved the first powered flight. Maybe, a patent officer saying more patents aren't needed could be about them slacking off work. But such statements have been made often. Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), famously said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." And today, everyone has a computer in their pockets. One good thing is that such articles, such opinions are remembered decades later. I won't be complaining if the clippings of this article are used 40-50 years down the line to prove a point - not at all; such vanity is welcome. As a kid, we had one telephone in the neighbourhood. If you owned anything that had rubberised buttons to press, you were rich - be it a mobile phone, a TV remote, or a computer keyboard. The more buttons your electronic appliance has, the higher your status in society. Phones were something you shouted into, at the top of your voice, so that if the network had an issue, your actual voice would carry to the other side. We have come a long way, from a time when we gave out PP numbers (padosi ka phone, or the neighbour's digits), to a time when we are writing obituaries of smartphones. Experts say phones are yet to use the full power of Artificial Intelligence, most of our interactions with our phone are cumbersome, clicking buttons sequentially to make it do what we want to do. It's a bit painful at times. Running low on phone memory? Here are 76 taps you must make to free up some space. It's not ideal. To carry a rectangular rock in your pockets all the time, constantly needing to charge it - with a perennial fear of losing it, cracking it, or it being used by your spouse to read your chats - is not sustainable. Something that is such an intrinsic part of you and your personality should be a thing you should be wearing. And slowly it should start shrinking, and eventually disappear - displays before your eyes and commands transmitted via thought. But I guess, there is still a lot of money to be made in releasing these numbered iPhone iterations. Still in its teens, it at least needs to reach marriageable age before it faces the realities of life. Hence, I would advise you to not hold your breath waiting to see if the ones selling horses would be inventing cars. Let's wait for the Henry Ford of this century....