Your smartphone is breaking up

The smartphone became what it is by combining the functions of a host of other devices—telephone, camera, web browser, handheld games, music player—into one package. Now that process is moving in reverse. Tech giants are scrambling not only to figure out how the future fits together, but to seize turf before new markets solidify. Devices worn on the wrist, inside the ear and on the face can together replicate many of the smartphone's key features while allowing users to remain focused on the world around them. There's a big business incentive for companies like Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft to want to move beyond the phone era: Apple and Google control the phone through their operating systems and app stores, limiting what other companies can do. "Lots of little pieces that are in the phone are starting to have a life beyond the phone," said Andrew Bosworth, the longtime Facebook executive who heads Facebook Reality Labs and is working on a number of these devices. "It’s happening in plain sight. This isn’t a future thing; you can go buy these things today."