What do bearded anecdotes and modern innovations have in common? On upcoming Android flagships, Sony artificial intelligence, Olympus 'mounted' lenses, the Chinese equivalent of the YotaPhone and Samsung's unexpected problems
Club of the cheerful and resourceful
Telling jokes is also a kind of art. And it is not at all as simple as it might seem at first glance. Sometimes the told anecdote makes the whole company double over with laughter. And sometimes – just shrug in bewilderment. Moreover, it often does not really depend on the anecdote itself – quite often a witty story, built on a subtle play on words, causes only a polite smile, and a bearded anecdote about Winnie the Pooh and Piglet ends with an explosion of laughter. It's more about the skill of the storyteller, the well-chosen moment, the right audience and a bunch of other factors. Someone knows how to tell jokes, someone does not, and you need to come to terms with this.
The picture is exactly the same with innovation. The trend is far from the smartest and most technically verified solution, the loud 'Wow!' the buyers are far from the most revolutionary development. And if one company has some idea 'did not come up', this does not mean at all that the same idea will not 'shoot' at its competitor after a year or two. Creating innovation (even from scratch) is as much a talent as telling funny stories. Someone succeeds, someone does not, because the correct presentation and a well-chosen moment mean much more technical characteristics in this matter.
Even those people who know for sure that they do not know how to tell stories at all, still dream of becoming the soul of the company and constantly being in the spotlight. So manufacturers behave the same way. Not understanding why the competitor gained such popularity, they try to disassemble all his actions step by step in order to then repeat his path.
Consider how many 'killers iPhone' have been introduced in recent years. Many of these devices surpassed the smartphone Apple in characteristics, functions and even price – but they could not attract the attention of buyers. Tellingly, many manufacturers could not understand why, because, it would seem, they had to break Apple like Tuzik a heating pad! This is especially true of the first ones iPhone, which, from a technical point of view, did not shine at all and could even be called smartphones with a fair amount of stretch.
Of course, companies aren't stupid. Everyone has long understood that you will not be full of technical characteristics alone, for success you need something else. But how to change this 'something', how to reproduce it? After all, if you take a closer look at any fashionable idea, it will seem completely ridiculous and illogical. But by some miracle it is still sold.
For example, Siri, which offers to talk to your phone out loud. And not just give short voice commands, but talk with him, almost like a human! Well, who in their right mind would have thought that someone needed this? And what about the stylus on the Galaxy Note? After all, until recently, buyers were so happy that the era of stylus was finally over, they were so happy to be able to operate a smartphone with their fingers. What kind of madness did you have to be to return to this archaic idea in this enlightened age? And after a complete failure HTC Flyer?
Desperate to find at least some kind of logic in this story of ups and downs, companies set off in a lot of ways. 'Innovations' multiply like mushrooms after rain, but here's one problem – most of these mushrooms are inedible, to put it mildly. This does not stop the manufacturers – something will shoot. After all, once a year the shovel shoots.
His favorite technique is to create hybrids that compete with competitors' 'innovations'. If someone else's idea suddenly “shoots”, then it will be possible to jump into an already departing train. And if not, it doesn't matter, no special resources were spent on the creation of such a device.
You don't have to go far for examples, just remember the same Google Glass glasses. It seems that the development is promising, and it is quite possible that one day it will bring a lot of money to Google. It's just that you need to work on this idea for many more years, and there are no guarantees that the time and money spent will pay off.
While giants like Intel are seriously engaged in research in this area, startup Vufine decided to do it easier – to release an accessory that can make any ordinary glasses 'smart'. In fact, we are talking about a kind of headset that attaches to the temple of the glasses with a magnetic clasp. The design of such 'hybrid' glasses is quite recognizable, in the style of the promoted Google Glass. But the cost of the device is much less – only $ 149.
However, the battery life spoils everything – the current prototypes of the device operate on a single charge for only 90 minutes.
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The idea of converting one device into another is close to Olympus. The Olympus Air A01 lens will turn any tablet or smartphone into a full-fledged camera with a 16 MP sensor and good optics. For the first time such an idea was implemented by Sony – then it looked really unusual and fresh, although the technical limitations and the price of the device did not allow it to become really popular. I wonder what Olympus can achieve.
The lens features quiet operation, fast shooting speed (10 frames per second) and a special autofocus system called F.A.S.T.
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The cost of the solution is $ 300, sales will begin this month. True, so far only in Canada and the United States.
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Sony, which is not doing well in the mobile market, is still hoping to impress customers with something truly unusual. Judging by the latest patents, such a 'killer feature', in the opinion of the Japanese, may be an intelligent selfie rating system.
Sony smartphones will learn to analyze all selfies and determine the mood of the owner from them. And then try to figure out what exactly made him feel happy or sad. It is even possible that we are talking about round-the-clock monitoring of the smartphone owner's face, and not just analyzing photos.
In theory, all this will allow the smartphone to predict the emotional state of the owner when watching this or that content and advise what he should listen to or watch now.
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Android smartphones
Not only manufacturers of accessories dream of crossing one device with another, but also the creators of smartphones. For example, a modern smartphone with an e-book with an E-ink screen.
The idea itself is excellent, albeit not new, because we have already seen all this in YotaPhone. And there will soon be no shortage of such cases. But this is just the case when one beautiful idea is not enough – you also need a successful execution. And by 'performance' I mean not only technical characteristics and design, but also the final price of the device, which YotaPhone was limping on both legs.
Perhaps the Chinese UMi Zero 2 will do better in this regard. True, it is still impossible to say something definite about the smartphone – from the official information we have only a couple of teaser pictures at our disposal.
As far as can be judged from the above image, the device will receive a metal frame, a design in the style iPhone and a physical 'home' key, similar to that of Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The screen size of the novelty will be 5.2 inches, the announcement is expected to take place on September 1.
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But Xiaomi is closer to the idea HTC. Specifically – a 'dual' camera HTC Dual Camera.
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True, the Taiwanese company did not quite succeed in this idea, but maybe Xiaomi will do it better?
Although it may well turn out that the above photo is nothing more than a fake, having nothing to do with the plans Xiaomi.
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A little more credible is the photo of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus mockup, which lies next to the original Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. The photo was posted by an insider Onleaks.
It is impossible to say anything concrete about the smartphone yet, but there is a bad suspicion that the increased screen diagonal will become the main 'innovation' here. On the other hand, fixing something that has not yet broken is also not always correct.
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Sony has always had a solid lineup, but before each smartphone had its own 'chip', something stood out among its brothers in the line. An original design, an unusual type of screen, Floating Touch, an increased degree of protection, replaceable 'caps' – there were many options. Some of this stuck, something was forgotten – but in any case, buyers had plenty to choose from. Even in the budget segment. Now this is not, which is a pity. You can laugh at the 'marketing tricks' and 'unnecessary nonsense' as much as you want, but you can't live long without bright and original (albeit not always necessary) finds.
Maybe we will be pleased with something new Sony flagship, the announcement of which is also expected in the fall? At the moment, it is believed that the Sony Xperia Z5 will use the processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and 4 GB of RAM installed. In addition, the model will receive a fingerprint scanner, but it is not clear whether this will be a separate module, or it will be possible to integrate it into one of the buttons. The device will also match the OmniBalance design line and will receive a 4500 mAh battery. It is expected that as a matrix in the photographic module there will be room for a Sony Exmor RS IMX230 CMOS sensor with 4K video recording, HDR support and a resolution of 21 MP.
I would like to believe that this time, apart from bare numbers, something else awaits us. Even if it is believed in this already with a slight creak.
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By presenting this or that idea to buyers, each company secretly hopes to make a splash among them. Sometimes it even succeeds – but the paradox is that it does not always lead to successful consequences for the manufacturer.
An example is the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone, which suddenly suddenly 'shot'. And this was unexpected not only for journalists and analysts, but also for Samsung itself.
This is far from the first device with a curved screen, and its predecessors were not very popular. It was assumed that the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge will also become a niche device, not particularly interesting to most. According to the company's initial calculations, for every 4 Galaxy S6 sold, there should have been only one Galaxy S6 Edge. Accordingly, smartphones were produced in exactly this proportion.
In reality, the Galaxy S6 Edge turned out to be surprisingly popular. Right now, the idea of a smartphone with an original design fell into place, which is why the sales of the original SGS6 and SGS6 Edge turned out to be almost identical.
The company's designers can definitely celebrate success, but managers and analysts can only pull out their hair and sprinkle ashes on their heads – during the first months of sales, there was a noticeable shortage of Galaxy S6 Edge, but a bunch of 'extra' Galaxy S6 was gathering dust in warehouses for weeks. All of this has led to the fact that the company's profit may fall this quarter by as much as 4% compared to the same period last year. And this despite the fact that the devices turned out to be extremely successful.
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