Smartphone Design Peaks as Virtual Software and Applications Take Center Stage Discussion

[Tim Scannell]

They are slick, well designed and incredibly functional. Despite their present-day "wow factor", however, smartphones may have hit the ergonomics wall in terms of the balance between beauty and real world utility.

Read the full content of this Article: Smartphone Design Peaks as Virtual Software and Applications Take Center Stage

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[weegie]

Will be interesting to see what the existing platforms do for security considering their whole "ECOSYSTEM"....or..."YOUR MOTHERSHIP IS US" philosophy is a contradiction as to what any administrator with a brain in their head would like.

I don't agree with physical design has peaked, especially after buying a new Galaxy Note and finding the devices defining feature is basically a failure compared to a 10 year old pda...niche product maybe, people who actually use the stylus probably even rarer...but still.

[Ed Hardy]

This was the topic of my latest post on the Brighthand Bytes blog:

Smartphone Design Is Rapidly Maturing

Please follow that link to get my thoughts.

[Antoine Wright]

No, phone design hasn't peaked. Just like with PDAs there has been a resolution of the slate design. There are far too many more mature designs to be explored. For example, Nokia's recent concepts Gem and Human Form push things to (logical) extensions.

The software has tones backward. Wake me when we have Newton levels of functionality, PalmOS levels of efficiency, and Windows Mobile levels of modularity again.

[Varjak]

I totally disagree with both statements ('design as motivator' has peaked and 'little design evolution going forward').

I do agree that smartphones in general are quite bland and non-innovative, with the exception of Apple and a few others. But there's no good reason for it. If Mr. Moffet's logic were true, cars would have stopped evolving in looks in the 1920s or something, since cars still generally require 4 wheels and seating for 4 or more (most of the time).

If someone else came through with a blockbuster design, you'd see it be a motivator pretty quickly. And I don't see what is stopping such evolution. After all, phones are increasingly commoditized, so design (along with, yes, operating system overlays and apps and the ecosystem) is a way to stand out.

Personally, I AM looking for a little style in a smartphone. Nokia used to be quite good at this. No longer, seemingly.