Idea No. 18: New Mobile Form Factors

We have been trapped in the smartphone's candy form factor since the iPhone launched in 2007. That's for more than a decade already! The business side of it shows easy success. However, it also stopped many companies to explore and innovate with new designs. Here are some ideas that I think companies should really seriously start pushing out in the wild...

If you think about servicing different use cases, and how different people use their smartphones, there's market for targeted designs. They don't need to become the most popular, but they can offer unique experiences.

Tri-Fold

A tri-fold phone folds like a tri-fold brochure (Z fold). The smartphone screen always face outwards. When unfolded halfway, it can use the main unit's camera for selfies. When fully unfolded, it's a tablet. This design requires the OS and apps to specially support the unit's various fold/unfold modes. In fact, it opens up new opportunities to invent new experiences.

LG actually has this design patented (https://binged.it/2N6nalN). The real deal here is how the folds or hinges should actually work. Those parts can be inventions on their own. The use of bendable screens is also the most attractive option. If done right, and thin enough, this can be revolutionary.

Using LG's patent as reference, a tri-fold phone can have a main unit where the CPU and main camera is (C). Unit A is the smartphone screen and always face outwards. The two screen units (A and B) can be backed with battery packs. If possible, GPU can be added in the A or B units.

It is possible that the tri-fold design would require variations for left-handed and right-handed people, which is really a matter of switching A and C.

Watch

The Apple watch supports features that used to be limited to the smartphone -- calling and texting are now possible. For a true handfree experience, this design can pair quite well with a Bluetooth headset. Voice commands should also be 100% reliable. The watch can also support narration by default. You don't always have to look at your watch. The narrator can do most of the reading for you.

Ring

If you can make it smaller, make it a ring. Just like the watch, it should have narration turned on by default and paired with a Bluetooth headset supporting 100% voice command reliability. But what if you want to "see"? Tap the ring to a touch-enabled display device and it will use it as your screen. This feature can also be in the watch design, BTW.

Auxiliary Displays

Imagine tapping your smartphone, watch or ring to any display-only device, and it becomes your extended display? Depending on the size, the screen can render like a smartphone or like a tablet/PC. This display only device can be touch enabled. It can also feature on-board accelerators, sensors and cameras that sync with your smartphone, watch or ring. Th unit is an I/O device only. It does not need to have big CPU/processing requirements. Thus, it can have the longest lasting battery possible.

If the OS can support it (think Windows 10 Mobile Continuum), this can be done sooner. HP has this as a peripheral for HP Elite X3, called a lap dock. It's an innovation in the right direction. The imagination here is that the main unit (smartphone, watch or ring) can be anything depending on the display you are using to access it. It's a smartphone on a smartphone-sized display. It's a PC on a tablet/monitor-sized display. It's a TV on a TV-sized display.

Imagine the possibilities!