The Evolution of Mobile Products
“An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone…are you getting it? These are not three separate devices, this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone.”
— Steven Paul Jobs, January 9, 2007.
The smart mobile era started at Macworld 2007 and over the past 7 years, it has swept through the world to a point where many people have only vague memories of life without a mobile device. In this period, mobile computing has evolved through several chapters.
Chapter 1 — Robin
When first launched, smartphones were complementary to personal computers (desktops and laptops). iPhone could sync with iTunes but the bulk of experiences were still centered on personal computers. Mobile devices were an extension of your digital life based on PCs.
Chapter 2 — Batman
In the second chapter of mobile devices, rather than being a peripheral part, they are now the center of a person’s digital ecosystem. Partly, it is because mobile adoption has stormed surpassed personal computers.
Partly, it is because we have created a plethora of other mobile devices beyond phones and tablets including glasses, watches, wristbands, etc. And computing has found its way into our cars, our homes, etc.
Mobile devices are now the personal command centers for all other wearable and connected devices. They have moved from being a sidekick to PCs to being the main attraction.
Chapter 3 — The Flash
This is where things get interesting.
Mobile apps has evolved to more simplicity. Chapter 1 products had to make the transition from PCs to mobile. These companies, like Facebook, had to fit everything an application could do on PCs into mobile interfaces. Chapter 2 products were largely built for mobile. They, including Twitter, were designed to be serve a purpose with fewer features.
In the most recent evolution, Chapter 3 mobile apps are being pushed to new frontiers in terms of simplicity and focus on singular features and use cases. What makes Yo attractive is the binary on / off or “one-bit” communication. It simply indicates whether a communicative action has been taken or not taken.
Along with taking products from a bigger web-turned-mobile app to its bare essentials, the next generation of mobile products are changing the way we interact with our devices.
Popularized by Tinder, app developers are using swipes as the core input mechanism. You can swipe left or you can swipe right. That’s it.
With Tinder’s success, the mechanism has faithfully been copied into a variety of other applications. The swipe mechanism built into apps allows you to quickly decide whether you like a song, a job, a house, a dress or a person.
Some may question whether we have gone too far down the path of making mobile products too simple and thus not useful. That’s not really the right question. The genie is out of the bottle and technology interfaces will get simpler from here. The real question is how to apply the set of bare essential features and mechanisms to solve problems.
Songhop, a swipe music app, takes advantage of all the focus and speed on mobile to help people discover music in a very fast and efficient way. You hear a 30-second preview of the song, swipe left to pass, swipe right to add to your favorites. That’s it.
At the same time, an incredible amount of data, analytics, infrastructure is being adorned by a simple highly intuitive user interface / experience. The key lies in taking something highly complex behind the scenes and making it work like magic—a la Dropbox.
While the evolution of life is towards complexity, the evolution of products on mobile is towards simplicity. The inevitable path of human interface with technology is always to reduce friction and enhance human decision making. We shall see more to come.
This post was inspired through a conversation with my colleague Matt Hanson (@matthansoncfa) at GSV (@gsvcap).
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