It may seem premature to talk about a world beyond the smartphone. Despite the prevalence of wearables, voice interfaces and artificial intelligence, nothing seems ready to pluck our phones from our hands.

And yet, all of the major technology companies in the West are placing their bets on what might emerge as the platform of the future: Apple and Facebook are betting on augmented and virtual reality, platforms that play to their strengths as toolmakers and could develop new creative ecosystems.

Google and Amazon are focused more on infrastructure, with Assistant, Alexa and initiatives like Go laying the groundwork for our future connected cities.

Notably, none of these platforms are natural environments for traditional advertising, so as they develop, brands wishing to engage with them will need to find ways to add endemic value.

Let’s take a look at four ways in which these next-generation technologies are already starting to shape consumer attention.

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