5.3 Stabilising Innovation in Smartphones

Marcos Antonio de Lima Filho, PhD.

The original iPhone introduced a pioneering form factor: the touchscreen slate. As it garnered customer preference, this new form factor gained momentum, compelling manufacturers to transition away from previous designs. Consequently, both consumers and manufacturers established the touchscreen slate as the dominant smartphone form factor during the early 2010s (Figure 5.3.1). This design stabilisation reflects the convergence of industry preferences and consumer expectations, leading to the widespread adoption of this form factor across various smartphone manufacturers and models.

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The Slate

The slate emerged as the dominant form factor in 2011, achieving over 95% adoption by 2014. However, stabilising innovation does not imply that innovation has ceased or that a product category has reached complete stasis. Once the industry settled around this product architecture, the competition shifted its focus to other components such as displays, CPUs, cameras, sensors, and more.

This shift in the nature of innovation and competition is a well-known phenomenon across industries. Abernathy notes that once design hierarchies (i.e., form factors, product architectures, or technological standards) are established, “innovative activity, which had earlier been scattered, now crystallises and moves downward to secondary functional parameters and attributes”. Consequently, “the standardisation of product design changes the basis of competition” (Abernathy et al., 1983, p. 24).

Several further instances of smartphone stabilising innovations have already been presented in the disruptive innovation section. These components and features have become established in most handset designs, revealing the ubiquity of this evolutionary pattern:

• Stabilising Innovations in Design, Form Factor & Display Technologies (Figure 5.1.2): Slate Form Factor, Virtual Keyboard, Multi-touch, Capacitive Touchscreen, 16.8 million colours.

• Stabilising Innovations in CPU & Networking (Figure 5.1.3): Wi-Fi, GPS, Dual SIM, 4G, 3G, Multi-core CPU, 64-bit CPU.

• Stabilising Innovations in Rear & Front Cameras (Figure 5.1.4): Rear Camera; Front Camera, LED Flash.

• Stabilising Innovations in Battery, Audio & Sensors (Figure 5.1.5): Accelerometer, Ambient Light, Proximity, Gyroscope, Fingerprint, Fast Charging.

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Smartphone Thickness & Display Resolution

Stabilisation also occurs in continuous variables, usually after a period of directional innovation. Between 2004 and 2014, for example, there was a clear trend toward thinner smartphones (Figure 5.3.2). However, this directional trend halted in 2014, when the average thickness of smartphones began to stabilise around 9 millimetres. This trend exhaustion can be attributed to the fact that the desire for slimmer smartphones is in conflict with battery life.

As smartphones become slimmer, there is less space available for batteries, which could negatively impact functionality and user experience. This balance between aesthetics and functionality has led to a more stable trend in smartphone thickness in recent years. This trend exhaustion indicates that smartphone thickness may have reached a local maximum, as Langrish (2014) would say. Technologies frequently go through a series of gradual improvements until they reach a point (local maximum) where further modifications are detrimental. Further reductions in thickness will result in less available space for batteries and camera sensors, which are the thickest components in a smartphone. Additionally, slimmer designs could negatively impact ergonomics, such as hand grip, and compromise the structural integrity of the device, making it more susceptible to damage during bend tests.

Display resolution in smartphones has also reached a local maxima in recent years. The average display resolution increased consistently until around 2015, when it began to stabilise (Figure 5.3.3). Manufacturers have acknowledged that, for typical use cases, the human eye cannot discern higher resolutions nor benefit significantly from them. Consequently, further increases in display resolution could negatively impact battery life and performance, as more pixels demand increased graphic power from the GPU. Since this stabilisation, manufacturers have shifted their focus to other aspects of display technology, such as colour accuracy, refresh rate, and power efficiency.