Om Malik says that, in a sense, the iPhone has already changed the mobile business because they're "making it okay to experiment with new ideas, and throw out previously taboo notions." Now Tero Ojanpera, the Nokia CTO, believes that "optical sensors and touch will be the next big things".
Personally, I think there's going to have to be a lot of innovation before I think that can happen - not just in the quality of recognition and somehow providing tactile feedback, but in the material used for the screen surface. iPods are notorious for being easily scratched, which has apparently prompted a switch to glass.
Apple also announced that the entire top surface of iPhone, including its stunning 3.5-inch display, has been upgraded from plastic to optical-quality glass to achieve a superior level of scratch resistance and optical clarity.
Judi Sohn doesn't think this is such a great idea.
Glass? Glass?!?! On a phone?!?!? How is this a good thing? Raise you hand if you have never accidentally dropped your phone, even from a small distance. If your hand is not in the air, you’re either lying or you only use your phone occasionally…in which case you have no business buying a $500 phone to begin with. The rest of us have our moments where despite our most careful efforts, these things slide out of our hands as we’re trying to take a call while doing 300 other things (driving not being one of them, of course).
Aside from that, one of my biggest pet peeves is smudging. Forget tactile feedback and so on - this is the single greatest advantage of having a separate display device and keyboard. No one wants to use a stylus that can easily be lost, and if you're touching the display this is always going to be an issue.
Touch will not be the next big thing in mobile until someone solves this problem.