Is this the end of hardware‏

At the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S5 in Barcelona the audience – and not just Samsung employees – applauded the water resistant design, the heart rate monitor, the pay by fingerprint and the much-improved camera. But these are all incremental improvements, just as the iPhone 5S was an incremental improvement over the 5.

That’s not to diminish the remarkable feats of engineering involved in both, but from the consumer’s perspective, they are solving known problems and improving in predictable ways.

Where there’s innovation it’s to some extent in new devices, such as smartwatches and the superb new Fit fitness band, with its gorgeous curved screen. But to a much greater extent it is in software: Samsung’s had S Health for ages, but it’s only now that it looks lovely that people are interested, and think their phone may actually help make them healthier.

It’s hard to get away from the fact that for all the designer collaborations and incremental improvements, screens are now better than the naked eye can perceive, form factors are now as various as your tastes, and even cameras and video capture are approaching as good as they need to get.

Improvements will continue, of course, but technology enthusiasts increasingly feel one thing: interest in products has plateaued as we ready ourselves for a new phase of innovation around a few new devices and a mass of new ways to integrate the web into the entire world around us. It means that every company you’ve ever heard of needs to get good at software. Very few are already.