INNOVATION: Powering the Future Into the 21st Century (2nd Installment)
The FUTURIST
“Your link to the future”
INNOVATION: Powering the Future into the 21st Century (2nd Installment)
Innovation means to improve or to replace something, for example, a process, a product or a service. It is also described as a process by which a product or a service is renewed and brought up to date by applying new processes, introducing new techniques or applying new ideas to create a new value.
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To explain further, let us study how a ubiquitous device like the smartphone evolved from the time it was invented by IBM in 1992 to the present. Called the Simon Personal Communicator, it was the first phone to combine the functions of making calls and for sending emails and faxes. It also featured a touch screen, notes and calendar, apps and widgets. It was a large and bulky device with a battery that lasted only for an hour. At that time, it was already an expensive device at around $899 with contract – or the equivalent of $1,435 in year 2017 dollars. However, it did not really make a big splash in the market. Only around 50,000 Simons were sold in the early 90s. Then the Blackberry came in 1999 capable only of sending emails, followed by model 5810 with the capability of sending emails and making calls. In June 2007, the first iPhone device was released priced at 470 pounds for an 8 GB model without 3 G capability. Around 6 million units were sold which, according to Steve Jobs, “revolutionized the mobile market.”
Apple followed this up with the first App Store which became so popular that there were over 10 million downloads in the first weekend of its release. Apple’s success was replicated by Android which reached over 2 billion monthly active users in 2017.
There were some 5.7 billion cellphone users as of the early part of 2021, growing at a rate of 1.9% per year, out of a global population estimated at 7.5 billion. It is now desired not only as a communication device but also as an integral tool in marketing campaigns, a learning device, a camera, a files and data storage device, an entertainment device, encyclopedia, a watch, calculator, a flashlight, a map, an entertainment device and other myriad uses.
This story vividly illustrates how the smartphone evolved from a crude communication tool to become what it is today, a relatively short period of 29 years especially in comparison to the present stage of development of the automobile which took 100 years, airplane, 118 years and steam-powered locomotive, 219 years. The present state of the internet was also achieved in only 38 years from 1983. There’s no doubt about it. The pace of innovation will continue to accelerate faster like never before due to great strides being made in science and technology.
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General Manager at Excell Realty Ventures Co., Ltd.
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