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It is kind of interesting to note that the 1 thing tech was able to successfully get us to add to things we carry with us was the phone. And that had prior sig
by bcrosby95 1y ago
It is kind of interesting to note that the 1 thing tech was able to successfully get us to add to things we carry with us was the phone.
And that had prior signals that we would accept that: basically every household in the US had a phone. Cordless phones gained popularity. Beepers were a thing. We knew people wanted phones with them, we just couldn't do it yet.
The odds of creating a brand new device that no one has ever heard of that people will carry everywhere with them is basically zero.
- dmonitor 1y agothe iPod / Walkman are there as well, but definitely less ubiquitous
- duderific 1y ago> The odds of creating a brand new device that no one has ever heard of that people will carry everywhere with them is basically zero. If there is enough utility in the device, and the form factor is well done, I think the odds are much higher than zero.
- HarHarVeryFunny 1y agoPeople already have a phone, and aren't going to carry around two tech gadgets. So either this thing does everying a phone can, in which case it's a phone (but it sounds like it doesn't have a screen, so it isn't), or it doesn't, in which case it fails.
- ethbr1 1y agoI believe it was Kurzweil who had the quip that only novel utility differences drive rapid mass adoption. The reason mobile devices scaled so rapidly is that calling a specific person (wherever they are) is so much more useful than calling a physical location. If OpenAI wants to create a successful device, it needs to have that utility delta over an existing smartphone. (While Google and Apple throw not insignificant resources into competing, with the help of mature mobile ecosystems)
- HarHarVeryFunny 1y ago> The reason mobile devices scaled so rapidly is that calling a specific person (wherever they are) is so much more useful than calling a physical location. True, and then the next revolution was smartphones, with the iPhone being the first. Steve Job's product launch highlighted the huge utility delta, which made all prior "feature phones" obsolete overnight. "We're introducing THREE new products: a phone, a music player, and an internet communications device" ... which of course was 3-in-1 - the iPhone. Raising the bar now becomes extremely difficult because the smartphone is a general purpose internet/wifi connected computer, chock full of sensors from cameras to microphone, etc. Now with local AI-acceleration as well. What can a new device do that a general purpose computer in your pocket cannot?