Posts Tagged ‘smartphone’

When Will Smartphone-PC Convergence Become Reality?

Written by Brooks Canavesi on April 24, 2017. Posted in Mobile App Development, Technology trends

Older generations who grew up with dial-up modems and 16-bit software often struggle to see what attracts tech companies and a significant percentage of the millennial generation to the concept of smartphone-PC convergence. But the truth of the matter is that young people are growing up with smartphones that are far more powerful and capable than the computers of the bygone days ever were. It’s every tech company’s dream to create a brand-new market for itself, one with limited competition and plenty of room for growth. The introduction of convergent smartphones could create a market like this, which is why the race is on among software and hardware companies to be the one to make smartphone-PC convergence reality.

The Long and Winding Road to Smartphone-PC Convergence

The main thing that attracts people to convergent smartphones is their convenience. Instead of managing data and applications across several devices, everything would reside in one place. Modern cloud storage services completely remove any storage space constrictions, and responsive applications designed to support a broad range of screen sizes and resolutions take care of the software side of things. In 2013, Canonical, a UK-based privately held computer software company founded and funded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and related projects, had made big waves when they accounted the Ubuntu Edge. This high-concept smartphone designed as a hybrid device, which would function as a high-end smartphone or be able to operate as a conventional desktop PC running Ubuntu. “The company had claimed to put the fastest multi-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 128GB flash storage, had the incredibly tall task of raising $31 million been successful,” writes Raju PP, the founder-editor of Technology Personalized. Unfortunately for Canonical and thousands of their backers, the project flopped, raising only less than $13 million. The fundamental challenge that Canonical didn’t manage to solve is that of apps. Despite their efforts to make it easy for developers to jump on board and write a single app with responsive interfaces that allow it to run on any Ubuntu device, the total number of apps for the Ubuntu Phone platform is still abysmally low. Most apps are either too superficial to benefit from a large screen and full-size hardware keyboard in the first place, or the user experience (UX) is too cumbersome to be comfortably used on anything besides a full-fledged PC.

Continuum Could Change the Game

At the Build 2015 Developers Conference, Microsoft announced the launch of Windows 10 with the Continuum feature. This feature allows users to use their phones like a PC. “… it’s designed to take advantage of new universal apps that run across Windows 10 on phones, PCs, tablets, and the Xbox One. If you’re running a mobile version of Excel on your phone it will magically resize and transform into a keyboard- and mouse-friendly version for use on a bigger screen. It feels like the future,” writes Tom Warren. Continuum smartphones can be either connected to a wired dock or paired using Miracast, a standard for wireless connections from devices to displays. So far, Microsoft’s implementation is severely limited by the small number of Windows phones. The official website lists only three models—HP Elite x3, Alcatel IDOL 4S, and Lumia 950—which is abysmal by any standards. Despite this immense hurdle to overcome, the company is very ambitions. “We actually envision a world where the phone powers many more screens and experiences, where every screen can become a PC,” said Keri Moran, a Windows program manager at Microsoft. In the future, we could see a broad range of Windows tablets and laptops that are nothing but a display and battery, all powered by a continuum smartphone. To make this happen, Microsoft needs to do is convince developers to build new universal apps, hardware manufacturers to create attractive Windows devices, and consumers to choose Windows-powered phones over Android and iOS. If they succeed, the road to smartphone-PC convergence will be open.

What about iOS and OSX?

As iOS begins overshadowed OSX in everyday usage and adoption the pressure of convergence has reached Apple as well. iCloud was an initial step to ensure data access across the Apple ecosystem of products, however, does not currently address passing app states across devices. Any cloud-based approach will also be limited by large file applications such as graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and video production suites like Premiere, After Effects and Final Cut. One route many technologist and researchers are pointing to is a powerful smartphone that would be dockable into larger form factors such as an iPad, MacBook, or iMac. If Apple can build a phone that is capable of being the source of computing and storage for all form factors, then seamless application state flow would be enabled as the source would be moving with the user as they switch devices throughout their day. Apple recently applied for this patent which indicates this concept is being explored extensively. One thing for sure is the road to convergence will be paved with intermediate building blocks like cloud-based data sharing while progressing to the final destination of seamless device convergence.

Modular Hardware: The Future of Smartphones or a Waste of Effort

Written by Brooks Canavesi on April 3, 2017. Posted in Blog, Technology trends

One look at the current consumer electronics landscape is enough to tell us that the one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Consumers want choice, and manufacturers try their hardest to give it to them. The result is a fragmented market with devices catering to a wide range of budgets and requirements.

Despite this, most products, and especially smartphones, look the same. The mobile phone market has been relying on the same design language that can be attributed to Apple’s 2007 release of the original iPhone. “Most contemporary smartphones largely look the same—slabs of plastic, metal, and glass, with large touchscreen displays, front and back cameras, and physical buttons thrown here and there for good measure,” writes PhoneArena.

But there’s a form factor that has lately been trying to stir the stale waters and do something original. Major smartphone manufacturers and tech companies such as Google have been trying hard to introduce modular smartphones, with the promise of improved longevity, lower electronic waste, and features that exactly meet the needs of individual customers.

As we approach the connected era, it becomes easier than ever to see just how useful modular smartphones and other electronic devices could be. Electric technicians would likely be willing to pay extra for an infrared camera that would allow them to spot a faulty capacitor, healthcare workers would benefit from having smartphones with integrated blood sugar and heart rate sensor, and personal trainers would surely be happy to turn their mobile phones into full-fledged fitness monitors.

Past, Present, and Future of Modular Smartphones

Some of the earliest modular personal communication devices were released in the late 90s. Visor from Handspring, a maker of Palm OS-based Visor- and Treo-branded personal digital assistants, was most likely the first mobile device that allowed users to expand the PDA’s features using the Springboard expansion slot. Anyone could purchase a dedicated GPS, GSM, modem, or camera expansion module, as well as a large number of third-party modules. The only caveat was the fact that only one module could be used at a time.

An Israeli mobile phone company founded in 2007 by Dov Moran, Modu, tried something different with their 2008 announcement of a modular cellular device. This device could be used in various other devices, enabling users to personalize their mobile’s looks and features by inserting it into a range of unique phone enclosures.

Modu’s story isn’t important because of what they achieved with their own modular phone, but because several of Modu Mobile patents were acquired by Google in 2011. Just two years later, Project Ara was announced by Google.

Enter Project Ara

Developed by the Advanced Technology and Projects team within Motorola Mobility, Project Ara was a modular smartphone project which was supposed to provide standard smartphone components, such as processors, displays, batteries, and cameras, as well as specialized components and frames. “The big sell behind Project Ara was that users could upgrade or switch out components of their phone at will. So, if you wanted a new camera or a faster processor, you would just swap one module out for another. Instead of having to buy a whole new phone, just upgrade individual parts,” writes Christina Warren.

The project was inspired by an earlier effort called Phonebloks. The main goal of this open-source modular smartphone concept was to create an open platform that would allow third-party developers and tinkerers to produce so-called blocks. These blocks would be available in Blokstore, an app store for hardware, as Dave Hakkens, the company’s founder explains his vision. Even though the project has exceeded its goal of 900,000 supporters on Thunderclap by October 2013, it faces many difficulties, such as its overall economic feasibility.

So, when Hakkens started collaborating with Motorola on Project Ara, it looked like the future was bright for modular smartphones. While Project Ara didn’t offer such a high degree of modularity as Phoneblock, it still looked amazing. The central part of Project Ara smartphones would be a frame with a built-in battery, processor, antenna, radios, memory, and display components. The team behind the project has even developed a brand-new internal bus that can handle devices that may come and go at any time, offering data speeds up to 11.9Gbps.

Promotional videos showed musicians adding multiple loudspeakers and a high-fidelity microphone. Other modules were designed to provide health and fitness tracking features, add a secondary display, kickstand, storing compartment, and other more or less useful things.

Sadly, it seems that all work on Project Ara was suspended last year. According to Reuters, “Axing Project Ara is one of the first steps in a campaign to unify Google’s various hardware efforts, which range from Chromebook laptops to Nexus phones.” In other words, Google has realized that there’s no room for modular smartphones.

The Era of Upgradable Gadgets May Be Over

Project Ara isn’t the only modular platform that has failed to go anywhere. The sales of the LG G5 are below expectations, not in small part because of numerous complaints about broken modules and phone issues. “Common issues appear to be broken power buttons, blown out speakers, and issues with the small gap where the removable battery ‘chin’ compartment meets the phone’s upper body,” writes Raymond Wong. Among the modules available for the G5 are a dedicated camera module with a physical shutter button, a hi-fi module designed in collaboration with Bang and Olufsen to add high-quality audio playing capabilities to the LG G5, and a battery module.

There’s also the Moto Z and Moto Mods, a family of snap-on extensions that magnetically attach to the back of the phone, adding specific features and functions. The current Moto Mod lineup includes a high-quality speaker from JBL, a compact projector that can project up to 70” on any surface, Hasselblad camera with 10x optical zoom and xenon flash, a battery pack, a magnetic vehicle dock, and others. Unlike the G5, Moto Mods don’t seem to go anywhere, but it’s safe to say that they failed to become as popular as Motorola would have hoped.

What’s more, the Moto Z and LG G5 aren’t nearly as modular as Project Ara or Phonebloks were intended to be. Rather than being primary components, these modules are more like accessories—very smart accessories, but still just accessories.

What has the Future in Store for Modular Smartphones?

Given all the above, it may seem that modular smartphones have proven to be a dead end. That’s probably true, to some extent. Motorola wants to expand the Moto Mods program and attract indie developers and makers, and Otterbox has released a modular case for the iPhone, which gives users attachments for everything from tripods to lenses to flash storage. This goes to show that people still care about modularity, but only to a certain degree.

As Christina Warren writes, “It’s nice in theory to think you upgrade your gadgets, but for better or worse, we live in a disposable gadget era. You use something for a few years and then either gift it or recycle it.” If we compare smartphones from 3-4 years ago with smartphones that are available on the market today, we can clearly see what Christina is talking about.

“Moreover, the idea of actually upgrading your phone piece-by-piece is kind of a pain in the ass. You start out with a starter phone, but by the time you upgrade the camera, the processor, and the memory chip—you probably could have just bought a brand-new phone. And your new phone would probably be more advanced, snappier, and more fun to look at. It would probably cost less to just buy a new phone, too,” Christina adds.

What’s perhaps the most important is the fact that majority of customers only care about smartphones when their contract is due for renewal, and they can choose a new one either for free or for a small price. Modular smartphones don’t fit into this cycle, but smart accessories do. They could be offered as optional extras by retailers and cellular providers, and they would also solve the problem of how to maintain the stock of modules.

With Bluetooth 5 officially adopted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) as the latest version of the Bluetooth core specification, there’s nothing stopping smartphone manufacturers and third-party accessories manufacturers from creating a new generation of mobile phone accessories—one that would fulfill the promises made by the developers of modular smartphones.

It will still take some time before such accessories hit the market, but Moto Mods and the modular iPhone case from Otterbox already hint at what they could offer and how they could bridge the gap between fully modular smartphones and dumb accessories.