I was just going over my shared items in friendfeed and noticed an interesting trend: A noticeable amount of news that have given me some sort of excitement are around touch screens and motion controls.
I have two products to thank for this :) Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii.
Wii: Nintendo somehow decided to go against the common wisdom (at the time) that the success in gaming platforms were dependent on better and faster graphics. They introduced an ultimately simple to play platform that doesn't require advanced controlling skills.
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata recently said the following about motion control devices becoming industry standard: "It's a good thing because we believed that we were doing the right and now others have validated that". Now that's a very humble way of expressing the fact that they have changed an entire industry. Look at the videos below to see what Microsoft and Sony are producing or envisioning to exceed Nintendo.
Here's the Sony PS3 Motion Controller demo video:
And here's the Project Natal (visionary) video from Microsoft for XBox:
Although I'm not hardcore gamer these are still quite exciting technologies. All thanks to Nintendo's initial blue ocean strategy.
iPhone: Before Apple launched iPhone in June 2007, the mobile phone area had become a bit boring. Yes Blackberry was there, yes phone producers were launching new phones but in my opinion most players were milking the market without really introducing any decent improvements to consumer experience. I realize that's a bold statement but think about this: how many non-geeks that you knew were browsing from their mobile before 2007?
Then came iPhone and created a sense of rush in the market. Here's what happened within 2 short years:
- the mobile user interfaces improved significantly
- there is a mobile software ecosystem now (mobile software are being sold significantly more)
- smartphone market grew substantially
- laptops are focusing on touch screens. Notice how this hints to a future convergence between mobile devices and computers. Compare that to the past talks of a potential handheld and mobile phone convergence.
Nowadays the pace of innovation and improvement is only accelerating. Here're some of the latest news around the topic:
Whether you like iPhone or not, I think we should all be thankful to Apple for pushing significant change in an important industry.
