Today’s smartphone and
handheld devices industry is packed with revolutionary concepts and innovative
products. Hardware manufacturers from North America to Japan are concentrating
all their efforts into creating devices that are somehow distinguishable in an
industry that is close to achieving its highest point in terms of advancements.
The modern smartphone is quickly becoming synonymous with a black, rectangular
slab of glass and plastic, featuring a large touchscreen and cameras. OEMs
around the world have apparently found a winning strategy in hardware
manufacture and this recipe for success has served them well. However, the
times are changing now faster than ever and so are consumer preferences and
despite however ingrained the smartphone has become in our day-to-day lives,
consumers demand further evolution of the generic design, or better still, a
new device to substitute the smartphone entirely.
Companies like Samsung,
Nokia, Blackberry and
Apple are no strangers to innovative products. They are known to take risks
when pushing daring new designs out of the production line and into the world,
and even they have somehow managed to stagnate in their efforts. In the face of
this global stalemate in innovation, Google has come up with project Ara. A
concept phone that features a metallic endoskeleton that serves as the device’s
central frame. The external components of the phone are comprised of detachable
nodes that add functionality to the device once they are magnetically latched
on. This idea was met with the unprecedented support of the general public on
early unveilings, despite the fact that the early unveilings did not feature a
working prototype, as was promised. But it seems the idea was enough to capture
the imaginations of the consumers. Google expects third party manufacturers to
produce their own versions of the nodes based on the functionality they would
like the phone to have. This way, by the time the device enters full-scale
production, there will be virtually infinite combinations of nodes that can be
attached to the phone giving it practically unlimited functionality and
extending its usable life exponentially. Google claims that this may well be
the last cellular device we need to purchase. By the looks of it, they may be
right.
But project Ara is
still at its core, based on the generic smartphone design, and is not, strictly
speaking, a revolutionary change. The devices that are currently posing the
truest threat to the survival of the smartphone is the concept of “wearable
computation devices” such as the smart watch and the augmented reality glasses.
Research and
development into these devices is strongly underway and preliminary reports
post better than expected consumer acclaim. Manufacturers have reason to
believe that the wearable smart devices will be phenomenal successes once they
are available to the general public since they so obviously break the monotony
imposed by the smartphone and tablet computer in terms of design and usability.
The way that users will
interface with these devices will be revolutionary in its own right. Though
early models of the smart watch act as devices that merely enhance the
functionality of the smartphone, they are not currently being marketed as
stand-alone products. It is expected that the smart watch concept will become a
device in and of itself once the manufacturers producing it and the concept
itself has gained maturity.
This is not the case
with the augmented reality glasses, however. Google has already started the
field tests of its beta prototype Google Glass products and the results are
extraordinary. Despite facing certain detriments to its success in the form of
scandals regarding privacy and personal space invasion, the response to Glass
has been largely positive.
Tech analysts also
believe that apple will be entering the wearable electronics market sooner or
later and with the recent acquisition of Oculus (a virtual reality gaming
company) by Facebook, it is apparent that the concept of the wearable computer
is gaining steam. Once it is being backed by large companies that have the
resources to see this fledgling concept all the way into fruition, large-scale
adoption is only a matter of time.
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