Why Hardware?

Siempo is live on Kickstarter! The first emotionally intelligent smartphone.

One of the most common questions we get from friends, investors and potential backers is:

why aren’t you making an app / a launcher / software instead?

It’s a good question, one that we’ve been exploring from the beginning. Building a whole new device–let alone a smartphone–sounds bonkers when one could just write some code, see what people think about it, and iterate until they are happy. Bla bla bla. Here’s our thought process:

Reason #1: We need a paradigm shift from the attention economy to a user value economy.

In the attention economy, mobile apps are rewarded for monetizing attention. The leading smartphone operating systems, iOS and Android, in turn are rewarded for promoting the most distracting and profitable apps, rather than delivering on the user’s values; whether that be quality of service, positive life benefit, privacy or security. Settings do exist to help users reduce distractions, but they are typically an afterthought and not designed in a user-friendly manner because such controls could foreseeably drain the attention economy. Hence why it is a painstakingly manual process for users to set up their notification systems in a way that fits their lives and is moderately effective. In order to change the paradigm, we need a complete redesign of the attention-optimizing OS and its corresponding app ecosystem.

In reimagining a new OS from the ground up, we can create a different set of principles to optimize for a user value economy in which both Siempo and app developers are incentivized economically to deliver on the user’s actual values. We are in the process of evolving a framework for this vision and plan on collaborating with diverse developer, scientific and user communities to create a better system that balances the power of technology with how it can enrich our lives. Some of our major inspirations for product and business model design to date include Time Well Spent, Designing Mindfulness and Zebras Unite movements.

Reason 2: The whole OS needs to be centered around the user’s values in order to deliver on them.

It’s much easier to create an app or launcher than a new OS, but these are patch solutions to a larger infrastructure problem. For instance, a lot of helpful things can be done with an Android launcher (an app that launches other apps — think of a custom home screen that hides distracting apps), but ultimately it’s a sub par experience because users still retain access to all Google Services, including the Play Store, and receive unwanted notifications from that layer. Users still live in Google’s world, which tracks every actions in order to drive engagement to their ad-based ecosystem.

Other software approaches such as distraction management apps have attempted to solve the pain point of feeling distracted, but these are even more limited in what they can do on top of iOS/Android. We’ve spoken to a large amount of users who have downloaded productivity and distraction free apps in order to reduce interruptions. Many of these apps are well designed and function as intended, but have one fundamental limitation: users can simply turn them off or delete them at will. Great for a few days, but as soon as a user gives into the temptation to cheat, their brain learns it can cheat anytime. Apps introduce some friction, but are akin to locking the liquor cabinet without hiding the key, when trying to reduce drinking.

By building a less distracting system from the ground up, Siempo is able to return agency and privacy to the user, without inconsistencies in user experience or easy ways to cheat the system. By pre-committing to Siempo, users make a single choice to live in a clean and intentional digital world, instead of having to make hundreds of daily micro decisions about how distracted to be.

Reason 3: Building a new phone is all about software innovation; hardware is the easy part.

Siempo is focused on software innovation. Hardware is just the best vehicle to deliver our vision and user experience in the first market iteration. While the word hardware conjures up images of notorious wearables and robotics projects that never made it out of the factory, the hardware route is low risk for Siempo because we are working with ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers) who have been making high quality smartphones for years. We are starting with a traditional slab form factor, updated industrial design and the dedicated Pause button. These ODM partners work on a fast timeline and also provide end-to-end hardware infrastructure support.

There is no need to re-invent the wheel when components and expertise are readily available around the world, making it possible for us to source a high quality device and make modifications to the industrial design. Blackphone, Fairphone, Robin — hundreds of smartphones have hit the market to fill various niches in recent years. Granted, many have not been successful, but we believe that is often because they have not been differentiated enough and did not provided long lasting value to the users.

We hope to innovate more on the hardware in the future, but at the moment our energy is focused on designing the best software user experience. The Siempo OS doesn’t need to be hardware dependent; we hope that other devices will offer our evolved OS in the future. In the meantime, owning the full product means we are able to build deep integrations with hardware to create custom features such as the dedicated Pause button.