According to a report on CNET, Samsung is preparing to release a three-sided phone. That would be one with a display on three sides. From the company that looks set to be delivering a curved phone (reasonably enough, the head against which I hold my phone is curved rather than flat) this is perhaps not as surprising as it may have been from others.
For the moment I am unable to think of a single practical use for a triangular phone with three displays on it. This could be a generational thing and I would welcome comments from people on why it might be a good idea. From the business point of view, though, it led me to consider some of the other impractical-sounding suggestions that were dismissed early on. Most of these have succeeded; if you're in the business of innovation you might want to consider whether you should listen to the skeptics or whether your products are more like some of these:
- Music phones - believe it or not, when people first started releasing music phones they were regarded as a minority thing that would never take off. By some, at least.
- Satellite TV: Derided by many as a passing fad, satellite and cable eventually took over the broadcasting industry.
- Electric cars: OK, the jury's still out for mass adoption. However, if anyone doubts that these are going to be important they need to look at the success of some of Nissan's hybrids.
- Cars in general: You have to go back a fair few decades, but remember that quote of Henry Ford when he said if he'd asked people what they actually wanted they'd have asked for a faster horse?
- Telephones: That's right, ordinary phones. Even before we'd dropped the 'tele' or made them wireless, Victorians were querying why anyone would want to speak to someone without also being able to see their face.
- Tablet computers: Invented around the early 1990s and used by some high-flying executives, these pretty much bombed before
Apple realised they were best sold as configurable, adaptable entertainment tools. Only under the auspices of Android did someone think of 'affordable' being good, too (and before the complaints start, I'm a perfectly happy iPad owner - I just recognise it's a costly item). - Helicopters: Leonardo da Vinci famously drew a plan for a helicopter around half a millennium ago. He called it an "aerial screw" and didn't include cool aviator sunglasses so it didn't get made.
- Telescopes: Galileo refined telescope and was promptly vilified as an heretic because it led him to believe the world went around the Sun rather than the reverse of that.
- Lightbulbs: Dismissed by the British Government as suitable only for Americans. And you wonder why the US is a bigger economic success.
- E-Commerce: In 1966, Time Magazine suggested remote shopping would one day be feasible but undesirable because women liked to get out of the house. Don't blame me, it was 1966!
So the moral would be: don't be put off every time someone says your invention is improbable. Take the feedback, they probably mean well, but if you're convinced then it could be worth pursuing your dream. Three-sided phone? I have no idea - but I'll keep an open mind.
