[Answer] Will phones be able to program and communicate with PLCs in the future?

[Answer] Will phones be able to program and communicate with PLCs in the future?

My bold guess is that in the future there may no longer be such a thing as a PLC, because a PLC is essentially just a type of microcontroller, while the cost of communication and control hardware remains relatively high. It was only under conditions of limited information access that this kind of product could be used in industrial settings to generate substantial profits. But as technology continues to advance and the Internet of Things becomes widespread, more convenient, more efficient, and safer controllers will soon replace these old, outdated products from entrenched vendors.

On the other hand, there may not necessarily be such a thing as a phone in the future either, or at least the form of a phone may be completely different from what it is today. If either of these two guesses turns out to be true, then using a phone to program a PLC becomes a false proposition. And if neither of them turns out to be true, no company is likely to bother developing such a thing anyway.