Every day, a lot of new products appear on the mobile market. Some of them become only improved versions of well-known gadgets, while others try to offer something completely new. It is much more difficult for the latter to make their way because it is quite difficult to surprise them with something today. However, even if the developers succeed, it is not at all a fact that the product will become popular.
Many ideas attract investment and attention only at the start, after which difficulties begin. Mismatched expectations, poor implementation, technical difficulties, inexpediency – all this prevented the development of many potentially interesting devices. And we are not talking about specific gadgets, but about entire segments.
Smart Glasses
When Google Glass smart glasses were introduced, someone talked about the emergence of a new segment of promising gadgets. Now, after more than eight years since the release of the first version of the accessory, we can safely say that there really was little use. The built-in mini-screen with the ability to output data from a smartphone in everyday life was not needed by anyone. So they bought such gadgets mainly for corporate needs.
The built-in camera for shooting video did not save these glasses either. The recording quality, ease of use and autonomy left much to be desired. In addition, with such glasses, others will always see you as a spy who can record everything that happens for their own purposes.
Wrist Smartphones
When manufacturers learned how to make the hardware of smartphones quite compact, smartphones in the wristwatch format began to appear on the market. They had a slot for a physical SIM card, and from them, it was quite possible to make calls, write messages, and read email without the help of other devices. Also, it was possible to find info about betting application Naija, scroll through the Internet and do various things. Among the major brands, such gadgets were produced by Samsung and LG. However, things did not go beyond a few models.
The main disadvantage of such wrist smartphones has been and remains autonomy, limited to one or two days. It is quite difficult to type text, and messengers with social networks are simply not designed for 1-2-inch screens.
And yet, to this day, such devices are produced by Chinese companies that are trying to compensate for low autonomy with an affordable price or other features. However, they are unlikely to become a full-fledged replacement for a smartphone.
Wear OS Smartwatches
Among all smartwatches, Apple Watch is the most popular right now. Paired with the iPhone, they are really comfortable and quite functional. However, even before the release of the first model, Android Wear watches appeared on the market. This is an operating system from Google designed for wrist gadgets connected to Android smartphones. There were many such devices, and there were even quite successful models. However, almost all of them were characterized by modest autonomy and a high price/
Gadgets on this platform have been and are being released by many top brands, but even so, they are much less popular than the Apple Watch or even similar solutions from Samsung running a proprietary operating system.
Smart Rings
Another idea that never took off is smart rings. They were mainly produced by young startups on crowdfunding platforms. Interest in them was quite high, and many projects raised hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment. One of the most striking examples can act as a headset, duplicate notifications from a smartphone, track the user’s physical activity, and even act as a flash drive. With all this, it is not so different from the usual ring.
Nevertheless, the mass of advantages of this accessory and a number of analogues did not allow smart rings to become as popular and common gadgets as, for example, fitness bracelets. Perhaps their time has not yet come.
Modular Smartphone
The most famous modular smartphone project was promoted by Google itself and was called Project Ara. It was based on the fact that it makes no sense to buy a new smartphone every time if you can just improve the old one. Project Ara is a kind of component constructor, from which everyone could assemble their smartphone with the parameters they needed. It was only necessary to choose the amount of memory, processor, camera, battery and some other modules. All of them were attached to a board with a screen that served as a base.
Even at the stage of developing the hardware basis of Project Ara, it was understood that the idea was only good in theory. In practice, its popularization would be hampered by many different factors, the main of which would be time. Mobile technologies are progressing too fast, there are new developments and new solutions that cannot fit into the format of a replaceable module. That is why Google froze Project Ara and did not start the serial production of devices.
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