After posting this topic and its first post, it crossed my mind that, I and Intel's Mooly Eden may be looking at the wrong side of the plate. What I intend to say is that, the next big thing may not be software based at all. It may be innovative hardware. I was convinced this is the case after I watched excerpts of Samsung's presentation at CES 2013. I think the next big thing would be flexible displays and the infinite possibilities they would open.
Imagine a 7 inch tablet that folds in half making it a handy smartphone or a smartphone that folds or wraps around your wrist as a watch.
Watch the video and trust me you will be amazed.
Imagine a 7 inch tablet that folds in half making it a handy smartphone or a smartphone that folds or wraps around your wrist as a watch.
Watch the video and trust me you will be amazed.
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Very interesting display technology! Had seen many prototypes but this one looks far more complete. But it still needs appropriate OS level integration and apps to take it beyond being a novelty to being a true utility. Software has been and will be what brings most things to life. Hardware opens up possibilities but software makes those possibilities a reality.
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@Praveen, the software framework I believe is already available. For example, Android 4.0 onwards is designed to work either in phone or tablet or phablet modes. It is probably very easily doable for any phone manufacturer to have android quickly switch modes from phone to tablet modes when a user of the near future unfolds a phone into a tablet. Most apps today, backed by the superfast processors of today, can quickly stretch or compress on the fly.
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@Praneeth - I am not just talking about a phone unfolding into a tablet or vice versa. How about a display the wraps around the edges of the device similar to the one shown above? What about a phone with a screen on both front and back faces that unfolds into a tablet? What will the back face and side face in the phone mode display? It opens up interesting possibilities but utility will come from how OS handles it and how apps exploit this feature!
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@Praveen, these particular issues that you raise will be solved as the new hardware gets in the hands of the OEM manufacturers. I believe hardware innovation is more of a bottle neck and its software counterpart evolves simultaneously.
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Application/Software innovation lags hardware innovation by a huge margin of time in most cases. Touchscreens, GUIs and recently NFC have waited long and some are still waiting for the right application/software to come by.
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However we should not forget that most opportunities start on the hardware side and are passed onto the software side where their confines expand to include all those unimagined and unintended twists and turns (Eg. - Personal Computers from processors made for calculators). Flexible displays are a fantastic new possibility and I am already excited about what new forms and devices will emerge out of this.
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I understand that right implementation has historically lagged quite significantly behind hardware innovation. But, if we look at the pace at which newer technologies are being incorporated into consumer devices, I am very confident that as soon as this technology is available for mass production, it will have supporting software end. We are not talking about an additional convenience like NFC, but a groundbreaking and category-crushing innovation such as this.
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@Praneeth - Lets just hope that this flexible display technology will find interesting applications soon. By the way NFC is not as trivial as you think. You will be surprised how NFC will transform the digital landscape in the coming years.
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