What do the lightbulb, television, online shopping, and the iPhone all have in common? They are all inventions that changed the way that we live our daily lives that were also openly mocked. The lightbulb was called a “conspicuous failure”, the television was called a failure, and the iPhone was mocked for not having a keyboard. All of these criticisms now sound ridiculous with the benefit of hindsight. But this illustrates a constant in regards to human beings and innovations: we want to change but also hate it.
灯泡，电视，在线购物和iPhone有什么共同点？ 这些都是改变了我们日常生活方式的发明，这些发明也被公开嘲笑 。 灯泡被称为“明显故障”，电视被称为故障，而iPhone被嘲笑为没有键盘。 事后看来，所有这些批评现在听起来都是荒谬的。 但这说明了人类和创新方面的不变：我们想要改变但也讨厌它。
This is what has come to mind as I have seen the new impressions videos of Microsoft’s newest phone: the Microsoft Surface Duo. Initial reactions seem to immediately dismiss this new form factor, focusing on the companies choice of chipset or high price tag. A similar dynamic has happened in LG’s leaked “wing” smartphone. This phone takes the concept of a horizontal flip-out screen seen on some older era phones into the 21st century. A truly novel idea that could have some real-world application is being trashed immediately as a gimmick and a terrible idea. These two instances show that as much as we are bored with our rectangular slabs we truly do not want the next evolution of smartphone hardware.
当我看到Microsoft最新手机Microsoft Surface Duo的新印象视频时，便想到了这一点。 最初的React似乎立即消除了这种新的外形，而将重点放在公司选择芯片组或高价格标签上。 LG泄漏的“ wing”智能手机也发生了类似的情况。 这款手机采用了水平翻转式屏幕的概念，这种屏幕在21世纪的某些较早时代的手机中可见。 一个可以在现实世界中应用的真正新颖的想法，立即被当作头和可怕的想法而丢弃。 这两个实例表明，尽管我们对矩形平板感到无聊，但我们确实不希望智能手机硬件有新的发展。
电话再次变得怪异 (Phones Are Getting Weird Again)
Ever since the introduction and subsequent domination of the iPhone, every phone company has tried to emulate this success. Some like Samsung and OnePlus, have found some success. Others like HTC and Nokia have gone from industry giants to irrelevance. All of these companies failed as they attempted to beat Apple at its own game instead of prioritizing their uniqueness that would have cultivated a core fan base. By swinging for the fences they eventually struck out.
自从iPhone的推出及其后来的统治以来，每个电话公司都试图效仿这一成功。 三星和OnePlus等公司已经取得了一些成功。 HTC和诺基亚等其他公司已经从行业巨头变得无关紧要。 所有这些公司都失败了，因为他们试图在自己的游戏中击败苹果公司，而不是优先考虑那些会培养核心粉丝群的独特性。 通过摆动围栏，他们最终突围了出来。
Apple’s dynamic for the iPhone is something that no other Android manufacturer currently has. Apple has complete control over the entire experience of the iPhone. They manufacture the phone, the processor, and are the only company that is allowed to use the iOS software. This allows the entire experience to be dictated just as Apple wants it. What results here is a very distilled and refined final product. Apple touts that the iPhone “just works” because of this control, and no other company has this level of control.
苹果公司为iPhone开发的动态功能目前尚无其他Android制造商拥有。 Apple可以完全控制iPhone的全部体验。 他们制造手机，处理器，并且是唯一获准使用iOS软件的公司。 这样一来，就可以按照Apple的要求来决定整个体验。 这里得到的是经过蒸馏和精制的最终产品。 苹果吹捧iPhone就是因为这种控制而“起作用”，没有其他公司拥有这种控制水平。
As Android phone makers have finally realized this, there needed to be something done to make their hardware more appealing than every iPhone clone that is coming out of China these days. It was time for hardware to start getting weird again, much like LG and Nokia were known for doing in the pre-smartphone era. LG, Samsung, and Microsoft have introduced concepts to us that gives us the breath of fresh air that we so desperately crave. Yet we have almost universally rejected them.
随着Android手机制造商终于意识到这一点，需要做一些事情来使他们的硬件比如今出现在中国的每个iPhone克隆产品更具吸引力。 现在是时候让硬件再次变得怪异了，就像LG和诺基亚在智能手机时代之前就闻名于世。 LG，三星和微软向我们介绍了一些概念，这些概念使我们呼吸了我们迫切渴望的新鲜空气。 但是，我们几乎普遍拒绝了它们。
Samsung as the darling company of the Android ecosystem has seen some better feedback from its ambitious devices. These devices are the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip. Two solutions to pocketability problems, these devices make sense for two different customers. The Z Fold is a device that is a regular-sized phone when closed, and a tablet when open for a larger canvas. The Z Flip tackles the pocketability of a larger phone by folding vertically to be a modern reincarnation of the flip phone. Despite Samsung’s standing in the market both of these devices were written off as too expensive and too fragile. What has been disregarded are the real-life use cases that these devices solve. Namely, being able to fit a tablet easily into a pocket or to be able to fit a large screen phone into a smaller pocket.
三星作为Android生态系统的宠儿，已经从雄心勃勃的设备中获得了一些更好的反馈。 这些设备是Galaxy Z Fold和Galaxy Z Flip。 这两种解决可装袋性问题的解决方案对于两个不同的客户来说都是有意义的。 Z折叠是一种设备，在合上时是常规尺寸的手机，在打开时可以使用平板电脑以显示较大的画布。 Z翻盖通过垂直折叠成为翻盖手机的现代转世，从而解决了大型手机的可插入性问题。 尽管三星在市场上占有一席之地，但这两款设备均因过于昂贵和易碎而被注销。 这些设备解决的实际用例已被忽略。 即，能够将平板电脑容易地放入口袋中，或者能够将大屏幕电话放入较小的口袋中。
LG has taken the versatility approach with their new devices. With the V60 and Velvet, the company has offered the option of using the phone as a regular rectangular slab, as a multitasking efficiency tool with the dual-screen case, and as a competent Galaxy Note competitor with the support of a Wacom fine point stylus. In some ways, LG offers the most versatile smartphone experience on the market today.
LG在其新设备上采用了多功能性方法。 借助V60和Velvet，该公司提供了以下选项：将手机用作常规的矩形平板，用作双屏保护套的多任务效率工具，并在Wacom精尖手写笔的支持下作为合格的Galaxy Note竞争对手。 在某些方面，LG提供了当今市场上功能最丰富的智能手机。
This brings the introduction of the LG Wing phone, which offers a take on multimedia and multitasking that we have yet to see on a modern smartphone. The idea that a video can be viewed while messaging at the same time is intriguing. Being able to utilize both widescreen and portrait content at the same time is an approach that not many have attempted. LG should be praised for trying to do something different, but as usual, they are being mocked.
这带来了LG Wing手机的介绍，该手机提供了多媒体和多任务处理功能，而我们在现代智能手机上还没有看到这种功能。 可以在同时发送消息的同时观看视频的想法很有趣。 能够同时利用宽屏和纵向内容是一种尝试不多的方法。 LG因尝试做一些不同的事情而应受到赞扬，但像往常一样，它们被嘲笑了。
Finally, there is the triumphant return of Microsoft to the phone hardware manufacturing arena. The Surface Duo is a return for the tech giant after the spectacular failure that was Windows Phone and Lumia hardware. Microsoft could have easily made a device that was another rectangular slab aimed at beating the iPhone, and then many words could have been written at how the company had failed yet again. Instead, they have released an ambitious device. One is designed at the core Microsoft fan, the person that needs to be productive and agile at all costs.
最终，微软成功地回到了电话硬件制造领域。 Surface Duo是Windows Phone和Lumia硬件的重大失败之后，这家科技巨头的回归。 微软本来可以很容易地制造出另一款旨在击败iPhone的矩形平板设备，然后用很多字写出该公司如何再次失败。 相反，他们发布了一个雄心勃勃的设备。 一个是由Microsoft的核心粉丝设计的，他是一个不惜一切代价需要高效且敏捷的人。
The Surface Duo is a phone designed for multitaskers, for people that use Microsoft services religiously, for people that simply love to multitask. Microsoft’s vision here is to bring the idea of multiple displays that have become incredibly popular on the desktop, into the mobile arena. Being able to utilize mobile apps side by side for maximum portability. The use case makes sense, and the thought that it does not is missing the point.
Surface Duo是一款专为多任务处理程序设计的电话，适用于虔诚地使用Microsoft服务的人员，也适合那些只喜欢执行多任务处理的人员。 微软在这里的愿景是将已经在桌面上变得非常流行的多种显示器的概念带入移动领域。 能够并行使用移动应用程序以实现最大的可移植性。 用例很有意义，并且认为它没有遗漏要点。
拒绝不同 (The Rejection of Different)
The mass-market appeal is always the first excuse to denounce a new smartphone form factor. How will this company sell a massive amount of units if they are trying a new radical form factor that is priced so high? The reality is that not all phones are created nor marketed equally. Every phone is not intended to move millions of units, some are designed to shift the perception of a brand or introduce a new idea. This has been conventional thinking in industries such as televisions and cars for decades, yet we seem to overlook it in the phone space.
大众市场的吸引力永远是谴责新的智能手机外形的第一个借口。 如果他们正在尝试价格如此昂贵的新型激进外形，该公司将如何出售大量产品？ 现实情况是，并非所有手机都被平等创造或销售。 每部手机都不打算移动数百万部手机，有些手机旨在改变品牌认知度或引入新想法。 数十年来，这一直是电视和汽车等行业的常规思维，但在电话领域，我们似乎忽略了它。
Phones like the Surface Duo and Wing are designed to show what is possible, an idea into the future. Most people will not see the benefit of a phone with two displays, but the ideas put behind the engineering of these products creates a thought into the future of smartphones. Every phone does not need to be refined like the iPhone, it is okay for a company to do something weird and unique that appeals to a small userbase. It is these ideas that help to define our next wave of mainstream technology. However, immediately dismissing these products ensures that these ideas never take off, which is the real tragedy.
Surface Duo和Wing等手机旨在展示可能的东西，以及对未来的想法。 大多数人不会看到带有两个显示屏的手机的好处，但是这些产品的工程设计背后的想法为智能手机的未来开辟了思路。 每个电话都不需要像iPhone那样精致，公司可以做一些奇怪而独特的事情来吸引少量用户群。 这些想法有助于定义我们的下一波主流技术。 但是，立即解雇这些产品可确保这些想法永远不会消失，这是真正的悲剧。
It is natural for us as humans to feel uncomfortable and resist change, our brains are hardwired to think this way. We become comfortable with the status quo and defend that comfort at all costs. This is why so many people stay at jobs that they don’t feel fulfilled by and why we stay in our hometowns instead of opting for relocation. On a small level, this is why we reject a shape that contradicts what we have been trained to expect from a pocket computer. We have been told that the only acceptable phone size is a rectangular slab. We have accepted this and these devices violate this idea and it makes us uncomfortable.
作为人类，我们感到不舒服并抵制变化是很自然的事，我们的大脑很难这样思考 。 我们对现状感到满意，并不惜一切代价捍卫这种舒适感。 这就是为什么这么多人留在工作中感到无法满足的原因，以及为什么我们留在家乡而不是选择搬迁。 从小的角度上讲，这就是为什么我们拒绝与便携式计算机期望的形状相矛盾的形状的原因。 有人告诉我们，唯一可以接受的电话尺寸是矩形平板。 我们已经接受了这一点，而这些设备违反了这一想法，这使我们感到不舒服。
As a result of this human level of unified discomfort, the people that we look to analyze these phones are quick to dismiss them because they feel so unnatural and uncomfortable. This subliminal resistance already puts these devices at a disadvantage, their higher cost of entry fully buries them in the minds of many. A device like the Surface Duo that is priced at $1400 with last year’s flagship processor is instantly panned by all reviewers. Never mind the engineering to make the hinges that durable or the software to allow both screens to interact seamlessly. On the opposite side of this, LG has a more affordable solution that is still panned because of the companies utilization of an accessory to accomplish a dual-screen setup. The form factor can’t seem to catch a break.
由于这种人类普遍感到不舒服的程度，我们希望分析这些电话的人们很快将其解雇，因为它们感到如此不自然和不舒服。 这种阈下的阻力已经使这些设备处于不利地位，它们较高的进入成本充分掩盖了它们在许多人的心中。 诸如Surface Duo之类的价格为1400美元，带有去年旗舰处理器的设备，立即受到所有评论者的批评。 不必介意使铰链经久耐用的工程，也不必介意允许两个屏幕无缝交互的软件。 相反，由于公司利用配件来完成双屏设置，因此LG仍提供了一种更实惠的解决方案，但该解决方案仍被搁置。 外形似乎无法中断。
无聊的风险 (The Risk of Boring)
In recent years, a thought has been in the atmosphere about the current state of smartphones. That thought is that design has peaked, nothing more can be done, and the smartphone is a commoditized entity like the microwave oven or toaster. This idea is the equivalent of blasphemy to a phone enthusiast. To have all phones look the same with slight variations is the nightmare that many phone lovers are staring at in the mirror.
近年来，人们对智能手机的当前状态产生了浓厚的兴趣。 这种想法是设计达到顶峰，什么也做不了，而智能手机是像微波炉或烤面包机这样的商品化实体。 这个想法等同于电话迷的亵渎。 让所有手机看起来都一样，并稍有变化是许多手机爱好者盯着镜子的噩梦。
The continued rejection of new ideas sets us for this reality. If we are told that the only acceptable form factor and experience is that of the iPhone or the latest Galaxy S phone, then true innovation in phones will wither and die. We must encourage smartphone companies to continue to try weird things, to experiment, and to innovate. Otherwise, buying a phone will become like buying the aforementioned microwave. Consider the buying experience of a microwave. Very rarely are these bought with research or brand preference. They are just purchased based on price to usability ratio, and nothing more. If our most important gadget becomes this a true tragedy will have taken place.
新思想的不断拒绝使我们实现了这一现实。 如果我们被告知，唯一可接受的外形和体验是iPhone或最新的Galaxy S手机的外形和体验，那么手机的真正创新将枯萎而死。 我们必须鼓励智能手机公司继续尝试奇怪的事物，进行试验和创新。 否则，购买电话将变得像购买上述微波炉一样。 考虑一下微波炉的购买经验。 这些都是很少有研究或品牌偏好的。 它们只是根据价格与可用性之比购买的，仅此而已。 如果我们最重要的小工具成为现实，那将是一场真正的悲剧。
This isn’t to say that everyone should go out and buy a folding phone and spend an exorbitant amount of money. But we should have an open mind to consider the quality of life improvements that these devices present to the right user. You as a self-proclaimed average user might not see the benefit of opening two apps side by side on a dual-screen device or having Google Maps open into a much larger canvas, but many people have been waiting for that exact device to exist. Continuing to dismiss these devices as unnecessary and overpriced discourages companies from continuing to push the envelope of what is possible for those people that want this sort of device.
这并不是说每个人都应该出去买折叠式电话，花大量的钱。 但是我们应该有一个开放的心态来考虑这些设备向正确的用户提供的生活质量改善。 作为自称普通用户的用户可能看不到在双屏设备上并排打开两个应用程序或将Google Maps打开到更大的画布中的好处，但是许多人一直在等待该确切的设备存在。 继续将这些设备视为不必要的和价格过高的产品，使公司不愿继续推销那些需要此类设备的人们可能采取的行动。
In the early days of the smartphone, some people would say that the internet on a phone made no sense. In retrospect, those people were incredibly foolish. This is not to say that all phones will be foldable in the future, but they might. If we continue to ignore the new advances in technology then we will be left in the dark and have our most important gadget relegated to be uninspiring and normalized. This is a future that we must avoid.
在智能手机的早期，有人会说通过电话上网是没有意义的。 回想起来，那些人真是愚蠢。 这并不是说所有手机将来都可以折叠，但是可以。 如果我们继续忽略技术的新进步，那么我们将被蒙在鼓里，而我们最重要的小工具则被降级为无启发性和正常化。 这是我们必须避免的未来。
翻译自: https://medium.com/swlh/folding-phones-and-the-war-against-innovation-940d99cc7476
