It’s all about LTE.

When was the last time you bought a computer?

Probably not recently. That’s what statistics tell us. Remember the nineties, when you walked out of the store and your machine was instantly obsolete? When you constantly needed a faster processor to utilize new applications? Those days are through. If anything, the bottleneck is Internet speed. One can ask where the national broadband policy is. Faster broadband may enable easier piracy, but it also stimulates the economy. Then again, we’d rather argue whether those at the end of the food chain, on welfare, are ripping off the government. When did we turn from a can-do society into a can-not?

Interesting question.

But with the iPhone 5, the concept of a computer in your pocket is complete. And it all comes down to the speed, the aforementioned LTE. Ignore competing wireless companies’ advertising of 4G, oftentimes that’s nothing more than hype, hot air. LTE is the real deal, and right now Verizon has the greatest penetration in the United States, but eventually its competitors will catch up.

And wireless companies love LTE. Because it’s cheaper. Sure, the investment is huge, but utilization costs less and they’re going to charge end users more! That old unlimited plan you’ve got now? It’s out the window, no matter how long you’ve been a customer. As for Sprint’s advertised advantage, with no limits, have you checked their 3G speed and LTE penetration? Absolutely abysmal.

But my point is after buying the iPhone 5, you’re not going to have severe phone envy thereafter. Sure, the iPhone 6 will be faster, with a better camera, but did you trade in your ten megapixel camera when thirteen megapixel cameras became available? No, ten was enough.

So now the focus is on software. That’s why BlackBerry is toast, it’s got no software infrastructure.

It comes down to Apple and Google. But more interestingly, what’s the next act, for both of these companies?

Switching to the stockholder perspective, with the iPhone 5, mobile handsets became mature. Sure, penetration will increase, not everybody has a smartphone yet, but soon everybody will and massive profits on hardware will decrease. It will be about apps, your software penetration.

Apple has known this forever. It’s the sleek integration of hardware and software that made the company successful.

And Amazon is learning. Although its hardware still lags badly.

Competitors are toast!

And growth will ultimately come from new products, just like wireless companies will find ways to charge you for use of LTE.

In other words, ten to twelve years ago, everybody was rushing to buy a mobile phone. Now everybody has one. The money is in the service, not the handsets. Hell, service providers pay a fortune for the iPhone 5. You might think it’s $199, but it’s really $600, the rest is buried in your contract.

Just like GPS killed physical maps, portable devices are killing the desktop. Tablets and phones. But it’s really about usability. Functionality. All the things you can do on your handset!

All because of the speed.

Speed isn’t going to increase dramatically for a very long time. And for almost everybody, LTE is fast enough.

The future is now.

As for the real future, the growth will be in unknown devices. Breakthroughs. And a lot of those breakthroughs will be in software.

There’s money to be made.

But unless Apple truly solves the TV problem, as rumored, the company will suddenly be mature, it will reap profits as everybody gets a smartphone and then the hockey stick will evaporate, growth will stall, it will become Microsoft.

So just like you didn’t need to buy an iPad 3 if you already had a 2, you won’t need to buy a future iPhone for years. Maybe we’re going to see the end of the constant trade-in of old phones for new that has dominated the industry this entire century.

It’s kind of like washing machines, or automobiles… You always want a new one, but it doesn’t make sense to pay for one.

Enjoy your iPhone 5.

It’s the last great breakthrough for the foreseeable future.