Someone asked me what I thought about this (link: video clip) today. It's a phone in development that apparently does not need any contact/input from a user.
I actually think stuff like this is nonsense. Below is my response to the question:
If I had to write this up, I'd say that it's a flash in the pan. It's got no major backing (e.g. Nokia, Motorola) who dominate market share and release minor upgrades (e.g. phones with Facebook support built in) that users snap up. I'd say it's a little too advanced for most people, and when you take away the tactile nature of typing a text, scrolling a list etc, unfortunately you take away what this generation of technology users are used to. Case in point, there have been voice recognition systems, gloves that allow you to move an on-screen pointer, trackballs etc - but people still use a standard mouse and keyboard in 99% of cases. If you ask mobile users what bugs them most about their phone it's rarely that it's too big, or "I have to hold it in my hand" or "I lose my numbers if I lose my phone" so, really this isn't solving a problem for people, just a different way of doing what they already do. The iPhone (in my opinion) has become so huge so quickly not because it's touch-screen - after all, a touch-screen keyboard does nothing different to a non touch-screen keyboard - but because it does what all other phones already do, plus provides a very decent mp3 player, plus provides an extensible platform so it can provide almost anything you can think of (games, photo editor, measurement convertor, notepad, to-do list). Just look at the stats on the uptake of apps on the iPhone:
http://www.appcraver.com/apple-app-store-success-by-numbers/- 100 million: Apps downloaded from the App Store as of the first week of September
- 4.8 million: Apps downloaded each day
- 30 percent: Amount Apple receives on gross sales of apps through the App Store
- $1 billion: Annual profit investment banker Piper Jaffray predicts Apple will generate through the App Store
- $100 million: Amount Apple donated to iFund to support iPhone and iPod touch app dev
- 16.6 percent: iPhone's worldwide smartphone market share, second only to that of Nokia
- July 10, 2008: Date the App Store's opened
- 1st, 2nd and 5th: Spots the iPod touch holds on Amazon's MP3 best-seller list for 2008
- 36: Hours of continuous audio playback supported by the iPod touch's battery
- Jan. 9, 2007: Date Apple announced the iPhone.
- 38,000: iFart Mobile apps sold on Christmas 2008, according to the developer
- 77 million: iPhones Generator Research predicts Apple will sell in 2013
