In today's technology circle, smart phones have long become an indispensable part of people's lives, and Android mobile phones, as one of the main forces, continue to promote the progress of the industry with "black technology".
However, not every so-called "black technology" can be successfully popularized, and some have even withdrawn from the experiment and promotion, becoming a footnote in history.
Today we will review the five "black technologies" that have been tried on Android phones but failed to go mainstream, which once amazed the market, but finally quietly left the market.
1. Scratch "self-healing" back cover - the prospect is limitless, but it will not be popularized in the end
LG's scratch self-healing technology, which debuted on its G Flex 2 phone, was undoubtedly a breathtaking innovation. The phone is able to automatically repair the surface after minor scratches, and it only takes a dozen seconds to restore the original condition.
This technology has really brought a qualitative improvement to the appearance and durability of the phone, and users no longer have to worry about minor scratches in daily use. However, this "black technology" has not become widespread in the wider market.
Although the self-healing technology is magical, its cost is high, and at the same time, it is limited by the material technology of the time, which makes it impossible to repair deeper scratches, so that consumers are less interested in it after weighing the price and the actual use effect. Eventually, the once-highly-anticipated technology faded into obscurity.
2. Modular mobile phones – full of ideas, the market response is lukewarm
Motorola's MOTO Z series has led the wave of smartphone innovation with its modular design. Users can add features to the phone, such as stronger speakers, larger batteries, and even a miniature projector, by changing the module.
Theoretically, the modular design gives the phone endless possibilities, which are extremely personalized and scalable. In practice, the high price of modular equipment and limited use scenarios make this "black technology" fail to win the favor of consumers.
Although modular phones have brought a new user experience, this innovation has not been sustained due to the imperfection of the overall ecosystem and the mediocre response of the market.
3. Eye recognition technology - security is increased, and user acceptance is limited
For the first time, ViVo X5Pro uses eye recognition technology in a smartphone, which achieves a very high level of security by recognizing the texture of blood vessels on the whites of the eyes.
It can be used to unlock mobile phones or encrypt important applications, and is theoretically more accurate than traditional fingerprint recognition. Due to the user's need for specific angles and distances during use, and at the same time, the strong dependence on light makes the experience not as smooth as expected.
In addition, the mainstream security technology in the market is more inclined to fingerprint and facial recognition, resulting in the black technology of eye recognition not really becoming popular.
4. Voiceprint recognition technology - innovative unlocking, complex operation
ZTE's AXON series is one of the first phones to be equipped with voiceprint recognition technology, which unlocks the device through a pre-recorded voiceprint, which theoretically makes each person's voiceprint unique, thus providing greater security.
Although this technology is quite innovative, in practical applications, the complexity of the sound environment, the user's speech rate changes and other factors will affect the accuracy of recognition.
In addition, voiceprint recording and use are more complex, resulting in poor user experience, and voiceprint recognition is not widely promoted in smartphones.
5. Floating touch technology - an amazing attempt of contactless operation
Sony introduced floating touch technology for the first time on the Xperia MT27i, a technology that allows users to operate the phone by simply hovering their fingers over the screen without having to touch the screen directly.
This technology theoretically greatly improves the ease of use of mobile phones, especially in winter when wearing gloves.
In practice, the sensitivity and accuracy of floating touch is often frustrating, and it is far less rapid than direct touch. In the end, this seemingly cool technology failed to make it into the mainstream due to the poor experience.
The two-sided nature of black technology
Although these once amazing "black technologies" have not been successfully popularized, they have promoted the continuous progress and innovation of the smartphone industry.
The emergence of each technology is a bold attempt to use the mobile phone experience, and their failure does not mean that it has no value, but has accumulated valuable experience and lessons for those who come after it.
In the future of smartphones, there will inevitably be more "black technologies" emerging, some of which will stand out and change our lives, while others will become a trial and error in history like these five technologies.
For consumers, the charm of black technology is that they continue to challenge the existing technological boundaries, and even if they fail, it is a brave innovation.
By reviewing these past technological innovations, we should think more about the development direction of smartphones in the future and where the real pain points of user needs are, perhaps the next "black technology" that changes the industry pattern is waiting for us in the near future.
—— The future of Android black technology, we wait and see!