I've had this desire for some time now to see an entirely new kind of phone/PDA/media player. It hasn't come out yet, and I don't think that I'll get around to making it myself, so I'll just lay it out here.
I'm tired of the ridiculous array of communication devices. I'm tired of obsolescence, crippled features, locked-down networks, and constant compromise. I want a device that does less, and by virtue of that, does more. Huh?
The thing is, many people carry their phones in their pockets and walk around with headsets on. What if we further decoupled it all. What are the main components of a modern phone? Radio, display, key input, and audio. Of course many have cameras and other gizmos, but these are the basics. When you shop for a phone you need to balance one set of features against another, and almost never do you get the ideal set. I would really like to see a new generation of phones that splits up these components to their most basic level.
Radio - A cell phone radio and battery without display, keyboard, etc. could be even smaller than phones are today. Without the bright color display, less power could be used. This could enable very small "cores" that fit in a pocket or clip to a belt less conspicuously. How do you interact with this core? Using the same Bluetooth technology used today.
Display - This is where it really becomes fun. Once the display is separated from the radio device, you can really be creative. How about a flexible e-ink display built into a wrist cuff? A fob hanging from your neck? A soft display on your PDA or laptop? A small LCD embedded in goggles? It could be as big or as small as you wanted. I haven't seen anyone abstract the display like this yet, and I just can't imagine why not. It's not like we're talking about high-resolution. Even better if the display data is sent using data structures and events. Each device could do whatever it wanted with it. Similar to how hands-free devices work today for taking/placing calls, you could browse your contacts, photos, etc. through a Flash, Silverlight, HTML, or any other custom application.
Input - There would be plenty of options here too. Perhaps the display device is a touch screen, or has buttons along the side. Perhaps speech recognition replaces key input completely. Maybe a soft display (PDA/laptop) just has a nice standard-looking point-and-click UI to interact with it along with your full-size QWERTY keyboard. Maybe haptic or gyroscopic sensors in your gloves work with flexing or gestures. Whatever you want.
Audio - Clearly the easiest aspect of it is the audio. We already use Bluetooth for mono/stereo playback and capture. This wouldn't need to change, though I think that stereo needs to be standard.
Innovation like this would lead to crazy phone combinations, which would be very cool for customers, but it also provides a great incentive to the marketplace. Instead of companies burning lots of money on incompatible phones for incompatible networks, they could create radio modules for GPRS, CDMA, whatever, then it would be a world of accessories. Every type of display and input device imaginable. New digital cameras would likely add Bluetooth as standard so you could pair them and seamlessly send regular digital photos (not crappy fixed lens ones) through your phone. Your laptop/PDA could use the modem capabilities for online access (I know -- that's possible now but largely unsupported). New types of screen technology would continue to push the barrier so people would still waste money on the upgrade game! At least though, the core technology would be less likely to change.
This vision seems very straight-forward so I don't understand why it's not already out there. We have phones converging into media players, PDA's, cameras, and web browsers. The component way of doing it would enable people to create the perfect fit for them. For those looking to go cheap, they probably could (and knock-off brand low-cost components would help with that), but the type of people that upgrade their phone with the latest fashions would continue to. It seems like a win-win situation.
What do you think? Would you buy an ArianPhone?
posted @ Tuesday, September 16, 2008 10:06 AM