Folding Phones and the War Against Innovation
What do the lightbulb, television, online shopping, and the iPhone all have in common? They are all inventions that changed the way that we live our daily lives that were also openly mocked. The lightbulb was called a “conspicuous failure”, the television was called a failure, and the iPhone was mocked for not having a keyboard. All of these criticisms now sound ridiculous with the benefit of hindsight. But this illustrates a constant in regards to human beings and innovations: we want to change but also hate it.
This is what has come to mind as I have seen the new impressions videos of Microsoft’s newest phone: the Microsoft Surface Duo. Initial reactions seem to immediately dismiss this new form factor, focusing on the companies choice of chipset or high price tag. A similar dynamic has happened in LG’s leaked “wing” smartphone. This phone takes the concept of a horizontal flip-out screen seen on some older era phones into the 21st century. A truly novel idea that could have some real-world application is being trashed immediately as a gimmick and a terrible idea. These two instances show that as much as we are bored with our rectangular slabs we truly do not want the next evolution of smartphone hardware.
