"Just what form the future telephone will take is, of course, pure speculation. Here is my prophecy: In its final development, the telephone will be carried abo

"Just what form the future telephone will take is, of course, pure speculation. Here is my prophecy: In its final development, the telephone will be carried about by the individual, perhaps as we carry a watch today." Let's not forget that at that time in the early 1950s almost everyone who read the daily comic strip would have been very familiar with Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio, which when drawn in cartoons appeared on his wrist at about the size of a normal watch. Later, this was upgraded to a video version. It's only a small stretch to add the other niceties that Sullivan mentions. I reckon the real surprise was how quickly that transformation happened when the smartphone actually arrived. It's unlikely that, say, several years earlier anyone would have actually predicted the enormous speed of the uptake.