In the cartoon ‘Wacky Races’ a misfit group of characters would try to gain a competitive advantage by coming up with ever more outlandish designs for their automobiles. Much of the time this resulted in a comic mishap, but at the same time, someone always won. One of the innovations, however unlikely, proved to be precisely the solution for that time and place.
Not long ago TV manufacturers were experiencing stagnant growth. Long upgrade cycles were mostly the result of the increasingly homogenous products. TVs are, after all, really just high-quality screens of varying sizes.
Then came a wave of innovation in an attempt to differentiate and convince consumers that, what’s on offer now, is materially better than what they have. Some, rightly, fell by the wayside, curved and 3D TVs for instance. And some stuck, OLED, 4K and “smart”.
Phones in recent years have reached a similar tipping point. They are faster than they need to be, the cameras are great, but from a design perspective, they all look like the same rectangular glass monolith. And for those reasons many people no longer feel the need to upgrade on a yearly cycle.
Ecosystem lock-in aside, (I’m looking at you iMessage) with speed and features no longer a differentiator, form factor is the new battleground.
The increasing ease to which screens can now be manufactures in weird and wonderful shapes is going to lead to some fascinating places. We already have ‘notched’, ‘hole-punched’, ‘curved’ and now ‘folding’. Not all will survive, not all will be useful, and some will be downright ridiculous.
And that’s ok. The market will figure it out. Phone manufacturers can afford to innovate, and with so much choice, customers can afford to be discerning.
It’s going to be wacky races in phone-land.