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November 29, 2016
The Magic Inside Your Devices
November 22, 2016
Virtual Experiences Will Drive VR Devices to Mainstream
November 18, 2016
Intel Unveils Broad AI Vision
November 15, 2016
Ready or Not, We’re Entering an AI World
November 11, 2016
Oculus Software Update Lowers PC Requirements for VR Headset
November 8, 2016
The Best Automotive Tech Opportunity? Make Existing Cars Smarter
November 1, 2016
It’s Time for an IoT Security Standard
October 25, 2016
The Indefatigable PC
October 21, 2016
Tesla Hardware Upgrade to Enable More Autonomous Cars
October 18, 2016
Can IT Survive?
October 14, 2016
Sony PlayStation VR Brings Virtual Reality to the Masses
October 11, 2016
Galaxy Note 7: The Death of a Smartphone
October 4, 2016
Service Providers Still Act Like Utilities
September 30, 2016
Google Updates Their Cloud Offerings
September 27, 2016
The Andromeda Strain
September 13, 2016
Apple's Missed Audio Opportunity
September 9, 2016
Traditional IT Companies Announce Major Changes: Dell, HP Enterprise, Intel
September 6, 2016
Rethinking Smart Home Gateways
August 30, 2016
Ridesharing Impact Dramatically Overstated
August 23, 2016
Consumer Interest in Auto Tech? Slower Than You Think
August 19, 2016
Intel Focuses on Automotive
August 16, 2016
The Utility of Cloud Computing
August 12, 2016
Intel Purchases AI Chip Vendor
August 9, 2016
The Digital Identity Dilemma
August 2, 2016
IoT Strategies Going Vertical
July 29, 2016
Yahoo-Verizon Deal
July 26, 2016
Creating New Worlds
July 19, 2016
The State of Smart Homes
July 15, 2016
US PC Market Shows Improvement
July 12, 2016
Pokemon Go is an AR Watershed
July 5, 2016
Car Wars: The Battle for Automotive Tech
July 1, 2016
Microsoft Announces Windows 10 Anniversary Update
June 28, 2016
Digital Audio Progress Highlights Tech’s More Human Future
June 24, 2016
HP Inc. Offers Thinnest Notebook
June 21, 2016
IoT Faces Challenges with Scale
June 17, 2016
Snapchat Opens Up New Options for Marketers
June 14, 2016
Apple Drives Apps into Services
June 7, 2016
The Evolution of Cloud Computing
May 31, 2016
Voice-Based Computing with Digital Assistants
May 24, 2016
Turning Makers into Manufacturers
May 20, 2016
Google Brings Android Apps to Chrome
May 17, 2016
Virtual Reality Brings New Life…to Desktops?
May 10, 2016
The Biggest Question for IoT…Who Pays?
May 3, 2016
Learning About Deep Learning
April 26, 2016
The End of Hardware?
April 19, 2016
Enterprise IoT Drives Indirect Savings
April 12, 2016
TidBits About Bots
April 5, 2016
VR in the Cloud
March 29, 2016
IOT Will Drive Tech Outside of IT
March 22, 2016
Apple Moves to Middle Age
March 15, 2016
The Invisible Platform
March 8, 2016
Bringing Makers to Business
March 1, 2016
IOT Coming Into Focus
February 23, 2016
The Devices Formerly Known as Smartphones
February 16, 2016
Can Web Music Survive?
February 9, 2016
The Growing Choices in Wireless Connectivity
February 2, 2016
What if Twitter Died?
January 26, 2016
Smart Home Safety Evolution: Physical to Digital
January 19, 2016
The Promise and Confusion of USB Type-C
January 12, 2016
The Hottest Computing Device? Cars
January 5, 2016
Top Tech Predictions for 2016, Part 2
December 30, 2015
Top Tech Predictions for 2016, Part 1
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December 6, 2016
By Bob O'Donnell
Do more with less. It’s a great personal mantra, a worthwhile business and societal goal, and increasingly, likely to be a necessity for companies who are designing and building tech products.
The challenge is that we’re being overrun by a huge number of more specialized, limited function devices. Growing interest in “smart devices” and the Internet of Things (IoT) is driving an explosion of creativity that, in turn, has brought us to our present state. While it’s great to have access to this amazing array of gadgets (with a lot more coming, based on the pre-CES PR hype that’s currently in full throttle mode), it’s also becoming increasingly clear that we’re hitting gadget overload.
As the cost of critical tech components come down, and we race towards an all-digital world, the possibilities for creating new options to add to our already large collection of computing, digital entertainment, and other types of devices are nearly limitless. There really are some amazing things that can be built with the tools we have (and many more which have yet to be conceived).
But we’re quickly starting to run into several major challenges. First, we have the obvious—though not often widely acknowledged—problem of time; as in, we’re already busy with what we have, so how can we possibly add more? In addition, there’s the challenge of complexity. The more devices we have, the more challenging it becomes to incorporate them into our daily lives.
At a functional level, the biggest problem is that many new devices are simply adding to or improving upon a single capability instead of consolidating multiple capabilities into a single device.
For example, in the smart home arena, we’ve seen an array of different networked products designed for use around our homes. We can use Sonos or something similar for distributed audio, new WiFi mesh products like Eero to improve the quality of our home networks, and smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo or Google’s Home to perform a variety of different personal assistant or home automation tasks.
Each of these products were designed to offer a best-in-class experience for a set of specific functions, and all of them are being well received. However, they each work on their own.
Moving forward, what’s going to make a lot more sense is an intelligent system that could combine these capabilities into a single product. Even though WiFi and other wireless technologies have removed the hassles of network connections, all of these various devices still need power, still take up physical space, still must be configured separately, and ultimately, end up creating a very complex environment that’s challenging even for tech enthusiasts to manage.
A single combined product that offers multiple purposes and/or functions would end up being a much better choice for most consumers who are only just starting to investigate these kinds of smart home products.
It’s not only a problem for smart home products either. With mobile devices, where people often purchase Bluetooth speakers, extra batteries, chargers and stands, it also makes sense to start combining several of the capabilities of individual products into a combined add-on to make people’s lives just a bit easier.
Of course, making good multifunction products is a challenge. In fact, one of the main reasons many companies have avoided trying them is that they’ve been concerned that if one element of a combined solution is considered subpar, the entire product suffers. That’s certainly still true, but as our lives become increasingly cluttered with digital gadgets, there are going to be strong arguments for taking the plunge—it’s going to become a practical necessity.
Another issue is that it can be difficult for smaller, more innovative companies to succeed in a multipurpose device world. It typically takes the combined skill sets and intellectual property (IP) of larger companies to successfully merge multiple technologies into a single product. Even for larger companies that can be a challenge. The real trick is to look past a single idea—no matter how clever or great it is—and to build a more comprehensive system that integrates several technologies into one.
Certainly, not every scenario nor every product is well suited for multifunction or multipurpose applications. However, if we don’t start seeing more products with combined features and capabilities then I’m afraid that, instead of doing more with less, we’ll end up doing less with more.
Here's a link to the column: https://techpinions.com/multipurpose-multifunction-tech-devices-to-drive-future-growth/48177
Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.
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