Study & Write T1 (3 technological failures)
Despite a rapid technological advancement that brought us a plenty of ingenious solutions in the latest decade, there have also been some failures. In this post I would like to provide three examples of such failures.
1. Samsung Galaxy Fold
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| Image source: https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-fold-mess-explained-2019-4?r=US&IR=T |
In February 2019 Samsung's Galaxy Fold was officially announced during the Galaxy Unpacked event. Samsung demonstrated folding in action and proved that the Galaxy Fold was a functioning smartphone. In mid-April, Samsung offered an opportunity for the media to use it. And this is when all the design flaws of the smartphone were revealed. One such flaw was a screen plastic layer that seemed to be removable, since it was sticking out of the screen area. Removing this layer from the Galaxy Fold's screen resulted in the screen no longer working. However, other reviewers reported that their phone broke in the process of everyday use. That happened because of the external particles getting under the upper layer of the screen through little gaps at the bottom and top of the screen.
Samsung delayed the initial release of the phone and fixed all the issues that were reported by the reviewers. The final version of the smartphone was released in September 2019. Although all the reported design flaws were fixed, Galaxy Fold still didn't become successful because of two reasons. Firstly, the phone costs around 2000$, which is 2 times more than a regular modern smartphone. Secondly, the unfolded screen of the phone is too big for the comfortable use when walking outside. Although there's an option to use half of the screen when the phone is folded, it becomes quite hard to read from such a tiny screen. Additionally, the folded phone may be too thick to fit in your pocket.
Having a folding phone is undoubtedly a whole new futuristic experience, but there is a lot of work ahead for the companies to produce a durable and comfortable to use folding phone.
2. Leap Motion Controller
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| Image source: https://www.computerworld.com/article/2599359/why-in-air-gestures-failed-and-why-theyll-soon-win.html |
Leap Motion is a touchless user interface, allowing users to interact with a computer by waving a finger or hand. It's in the same category as a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or DualShock controller; it turns physical actions into data that can be recognized by a computer. The idea of creating such a device seems great and in-the-air gestures are seen like the future of gaming and the desktop PC user interface. The controller is pretty simple to install and fun to use. Also, hand and fingers tracking is quite accurate. So, what is the reason of the project failure?
The main reason is the human psychology. We are expecting to get some feedback/action done because of us touching, pushing, clicking or pulling something. Waving our hands and arms around to control something is not an activity that corresponds to anything that was ever a part of the human experience.
While The Leap Motion Controller is cool, it doesn't really improve our interaction with the computer. We already have touchscreens that feel more natural to humans when being interacted with. Therefore, the are of use of The Leap Motion Controller is quite limited.
3. Microsoft Band
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| Image source: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/10/microsoft-band-is-dead-what-went-wrong/ |
The Microsoft Band is a fitness tracker that integrates with Windows Phone, iOS and Android smartphones using a Bluetooth connection. As expected from Microsoft, the software was smooth, beautiful, and elegant. But everything wasn't that smooth in terms of the design of the device.
Critics claimed that The Band was uncomfortable to wear, had a short battery life and required a proprietary charger. This was unacceptable with the price tag of 379$. At the time of the device invention, there were already too many competitors in the market with products that perform similar functions as the Band but at a lower price, such as FitBit trackers and Apple Watch. This is why Microsoft discontinued The Band in year 2016.
To conclude, failures are inevitable during any progress, including technological. Even products of huge and trusted companies, such as Microsoft and Samsung may fail. However, any failure has its advantages as well. Companies can analyze the reasons of their failure not to make the same mistake in the future. Also, any failed product gives a chance to other companies to rework and enhance the failed product, which may become popular. People should not be afraid of failures, but should learn from them.
Sources used:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/4/20898484/samsung-galaxy-fold-folding-test-failure-durability
https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/22/4544706/leap-motion-controller-toy-not-future-of-interaction
https://www.windowscentral.com/did-microsoft-kill-band-too-soon
https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/10/microsoft-band-is-dead-what-went-wrong/
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