By Zia Askari | TelecomDrive.com
Smartphones are getting smarter day by day, cutting across multiple user segments, delivering unique business value propositions and most importantly, becoming closer to the hearts and minds of end users.
Innovation is right at the helm of it all. Innovation around designing future-ready devices is something that every vendor is looking for. We take a deep dive into what is happening into this segment today and answer some questions such as how future smartphones can enable a better tomorrow for their customers.
Peter Chang
Speaking about some of the big innovations in the smartphone space, Peter Chang, Regional Head – South Asia & Country Manager – ASUS India, explained, “Looking at the current scenario, features like 4G, fingerprint scanner, the use of glass on a phone, etc are already taking over the market by storm. As consumer needs and technological prowess sees evolution, the type of new features that arrive in a smartphone and their acceptance will shape the experience for the consumer and drive the market forces.”
A recent entrant in the Indian market, Beijing, China based LeEco is creating a lot of innovative disruptions in the Indian market.
Atul Jain
Atul Jain, COO, LeEco, India, explains, “I would like share what we have done so far in bringing paradigm shift in customer experience. One such breakthrough from LeEco is in the field of audio. The audio industry remained stagnated with its 3.5mm jack standard before we launched our revolutionary CDLA (Continual Digital Lossless Audio) Type C interface. CDLA is LeEco’s proprietary technology and a world’s first that will redefine audio experience in smartphones with its breakthrough technology, intelligence and an ecological revolution. So far, as most phones use a 3.5 mm audio jack, they employ the Hi-Fi digital-audio reproduction, which result in a loss of sound. CDLA will also put an end to the isolation due to poor transport medium and chaotic sound field and greatly reduces the cost for the user to enjoy high quality music. This new digital audio standard created a buzz by dropping the traditional audio jack in the recently launched Le Max2 and Le 2 Superphones. Additionally, the ecosystem model and powerful processor that our Superphones come with, will define the future trajectory of the smartphone business in India.”
DataWind is known for enabling mass adoption of smart devices and the company surely knows how to sell cost effective devices that are spreading unique digital experiences for its users.
Suneet Singh Tuli
Speaking on innovation in smartphones, Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, DataWind, says,” New technologies always see very quick adoption by consumers. There are infinite possibilities when it comes to smartphones of the future. Technologists around the globe are already experimenting with the basic features of phone and other pieces related to it. Experiencing contactless charging or no more dead battery could benefit all. Future mobile phones could also recognise you by the tone of your voice, the pattern of your typing or even the way you walk While foldable OLED screen, Sixth-Sense technology are not far behind either. Not only this, connecting all your electronic devices with your phone will allow you to work at ease and stay connected with everything and all the time. The world will actually be smaller with all the growth and innovation under process right now!
At the same time, our focus should be to providing all these beneficial conveniences to those who even today are not connected with internet or are still hoping to get a basic smartphone. The purpose of technology will be served only if we are able to bridge this gap. DataWind hopes to serve as many as possible with its low cost products.”
Hyderabad based Smartron is a recent entrant in the smart devices space and has taken a unique IoT driven approach to enable and deliver unique device ecosystem to its user community.
Mahesh Lingareddy
Speaking about some of the big innovations that can deliver unique experiences for consumers, Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder & Chairman, Smartron says that Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Image Sensing and Artificial Intelligence will make next generation of devices lot more autonomous and intelligent resulting in delivering some amazing customer experience.
“Smartphones will go from browsing and communication centric device to true extension to human brain as a lifestyle and personal assistant. The boundary between human and machine will continue to become blurry. Smartphones can help us with managing our health and lifestyle better, improving our overall productivity and safety and giving more control over our environment. Artificial Intelligence will be an integral part of Future Smartphones,” he added.
Drivers for Mass Acceptance
There is an incredible pace at which smartphone penetration is increasing. And with this it’s computing power and application handling capabilities are also getting enhanced with time.
Peter Chang from ASUS India says that it is the consumer response to any existing or new technology that will determine how and what will bring about mass acceptance.
“For example, when one looks at 4G- it is the expansion of data consumption that has driven the growth. People are on the move always, and their choice of devices is quickly progressing to what becomes convenient at that point. Large screens and data availability have driven content streaming, better connectivity has ensured that call drops are reduced, better battery life, better processors and much more, has made the smartphone a perfect companion for a user’s computing needs. With such multiple applications, smartphones are quickly becoming the go to device for consumers for all kinds of activities,” he adds on.
Atul Jain from LeEco India says that brands keep launching new smartphones with enhanced processors with bigger internal storage and RAM. “LeEco ensures that its new versions of Superphones are more powerful than its previous models. Our next gen Superphone, Le Max2 comes with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 820 processor and has two variants of 4GB RAM with 32GB ROM and 6GB RAM with 64GB ROM.
Overall, as we see it, the big drivers for mass acceptance of smartphones are three: disruptive pricing, revolutionary technology, and superlative user experience. What we’ve also realized is that users now increasingly look for unique experiences in smartphones, in addition to demanding superlative specs at competitive pricing. Therefore, features such as camera quality and audio quality have come to play a key role that dictates consumer preference. Keeping this is mind, our second generation Superphone Le Max2 sports a powerful 21-megapixel rear and 8-megapixel front camera and Le 2 comes backed with a 16MP rear camera and 8MP front camera,” he explains.
Suneet Singh Tuli from DataWind explains that soon a smartphone will be the only computer we would need and a really powerful one. The greatest impact of smartphones has to do with information that is available to the users at almost all the time and any place.
“We can expect to see less emphasis on desktop PC software and an increasing shift to cloud and mobile applications killing the traditional way. All this have been possible because of better computing power and enhanced application handling capabilities of application software,” he adds.
Illustration Courtesy: www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
