So, i have been considering dumping the android platform for IOS, then i got thinking; Phone companies seem to now be generally lazy and lack innovation. They all stick to what has now come to be called the "glass slab".

Hate the good old Nokia as you would, but one can't take away their design and innovative stance; Different shapes, different sizes, different form factors. Then came android, and every one seems to be chasing after that glass slab form factor. It has gotten so bad now that the argument is now who has a slimmer design or better screen resolution or size of internal specs. Even making so much issue out of which phones breaks/bends.

I think its high time these phone designers/companies dust up their thinking cap and put it back on. That said, i want to give kudus to Blackberry for their new and out of the box design (passport), i really wish one can see more of such out of the box designs in the nearest future. And before anyone asks which one has Nigeria or Africa been able to come up with, i dare say, NON, atleast not directly, but so long as we still try to purchase these phones, i feel we are contributing somehow.

So, all that being said, what do y'all think is the next stop in mobile devices....... phones, tablets and/or laptops for that matter. For me i think holographic displays should be the worlds next innovative stop. Watched a video on Meta-pro glass, and i was really impressed (y'all shld chk it out).

Lets hear from you guys

1. Do you think mobile device design innovation is at an all time low?
2. What innovation do you see coming up next or which would you love to see?

ps: i think "wearables" are going to die out soon enough.

Let me see the video .......the video on Meta-pro glass,.....post it here, so I will have an insight .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nOrWCOFeno

Augmented reality... next big thing?

lightoftruth: Let me see the video .......the video on Meta-pro glass,.....post it here, so I will have an insight .

Video added, you can chk it out. i think its really innovative and cool. u can chk other videos on youtube

Debonair01:
2. What innovation do you see coming up next or which would you love to see?

ps: i think "wearables" are going to die out soon enough.

Yeah! That's the one I don't get. Imagine wearing a phone wristwatch outdoors and a call comes in and you answer it without an accessory. People will think you are paralysed or something.
That said, I think the smartphone world is reaching its peak, although there still quite a lot of holes to be covered and new structures to be built. It's only a matter of time. It's obviously won't be as sporadic as it's been over the last three years. Remember we are yet to have the bendable and foldable displays, operate our touchscreen devices with wet fingers, have 3g on both sims @ the same time, run very sophisticated apps like on pc, etc.

When talking of design two things spring to mind, one is material and secondly ergonomics. Ergonomics first though because that is what informs you the user whether you are comfortable using the product. We all have seen the death of the hardware keyboard for mobile phones. Very few phones and phone makers still bother with hardware keyboards. It used to be central to the ergonomics of a phone design so makers had to be innovative in placing it giving rise to all manner of positioning. With no hardware keyboard to design around it is hard to find a more suitable design than the glass slab. Almost all input these days are via touch, I believe we will continue to have glass slab designs until a new way of interacting with mobiles becomes popular. This is where innovation kicks in. Holographic display and interaction are still a ways off because they have not yet figured out a way to display light without a medium or without you wearing something over your eyes.

But if we relax the requirement and say let's go with eye tech then maybe we can see a change but then the paradigm will have to shift from caring a piece of tech in your hand to wearing glasses or something over your eyes. I doubt everyone wants to start wearing glasses and pressing buttons only you can see, it feels like madness.

The next thing is possibly gesture based operation which will also bring about a change in what type of device we will carry but also has the disadvantage of being too geeky, waving your hands about like a drunkard.

Hopefully in my life time we will get to my fantasy, brain to machine interface. Then we can do away with all these conspicuous techs and communicate with a lot more freedom and clarity.

Well... What can I say?