The Phone Era May Be Over

It's been almost a month since my vacation escape to - what is considered by some - one of the top trekking places on Earth - the Caucasus mountains of Georgian Tusheti. Looking at the equipment I took there was one surprising aspect: the mobile phone stayed at home. I took the iPad Mini and the Garmin inReach Mini instead.

The inReach served as an emergency device and also allowed my close relatives to track me passively for their piece of mind. On my end it was completely silent and invisible except from providing (essential in mountains) weather forecast service. The device is almost perfect - waterproof, only slightly bigger than a watch, and lasting for 5 days on a charge (with location updates sent every 30 minutes over a satellite - that is really not bad!).

The iPad served as a general mapping (Gaia) and communication device. It turns out, except for emergency, occasional email works better than a phone. And there is no signal up there, so why would one need a  phone anyway?

When not on vacation, I spend a lot of time talking to people. But not over a phone, but using conferencing systems instead. It seems, like fax some years ago, the 1:1 phone service has peaked. It will not disappear overnight, but I think the trend is clear. At least for me it's been for the first time since many years when I did not feel the need to have a phone with me for an extended period.

And ah - the other day I mentioned I like to have backups of the essential gear and the phone had been serving as the iPad's backup mapping device. Now when I can have a detailed topographic map on a wrist (the fēnix 5 plus), the watch is the backup device (and I think it could even be the primary mapping device for some more extreme trips...).