Technology takes a giant leap exponentially and every 5 years where have a product that teaches us how to use our fingers in a different ways.
I still remember those days of laptops where the only discussion was whether to buy a 14 inch and 15 inch one and it didn't matter
if cell phones were flip or candy style and frankly we never knew what the size of our phone screen was.
The idea of carrying a huge CD disc-man along irked people, sooner Sandisk and Sony came up with mp3 players of varying size and memory. This has the capability to hold large no of songs in minute device.
But the problem was seeking through the songs was linear and would take ever to seek to the end of the list.
Soon the market was flooded with mini and micro music players and which were almost reached saturation point until egoistic ipod took control and told us that wheels could be used to cover large distance in with limited effort. Navigation through 1000 songs end to end with couple of wheel strokes was cool and less frustrating. But the problem was still carrying two small gadgets namely the phone and music player. Sony then tapped the next market where user could use their phone as a music player. This was the birth of the Sony Walkman phones which ruled the cell phone market for a while. Screen size of 2 inch and 500 Mb of memory literally flattered us. Music video player of 6 inches were in the market but failed to impress due to their larger size and not so affordable costs.
Then technology took a Trippe Jump where it showed the world that thumb could be used to swipe and scroll rather than just press buttons. This was the birth of iphone which integrated phone, music, video and of-course the touch technology. This was a technology revolution and it redefined the term smart phone. Until then we had black-berry and Palm-Teo and Windows Mobile 5 on Motorola which held on to the market and were called smart phones.
And then it was the birth of Andy Ruben's Android, termed G phone or G1 which was romped against the mighty iPhone. Technologically Android OS was superior compared to the iOS in terms of its features it bundled with; But from a user experience it still remained a beta product. Surely a polished leather shoe is well appreciated compared to a unpolished rather stronger sturdy shoe. Even though Windows Mobile & HTC tried to cash in this 3 inch space with million touch / touch - keyboard devices, failed miserably.
Human quest for bigger wider better resulted in TABLETs, which was the smart part of the smart phone. This was the birth of 10 inch tabs. Apple's
iPAD just made people crazy. Samsung capitalized on the market with its Galaxy tab and sold millions even before Google / Motorola came up with Xoom. Soon Acer, HP's (Web OS) and XYZ companies tried to hijack the 10 inch market but in vain. Microsoft's surface needs a resurface.
Amazon had their eReader kindle which was a market leader in its own domain. They ventured into 7 inch market with Kindle fire which was just a colorful Kindle. It sold millions due to its easy integration with Amazon ecosystem of course worth for the cost. Amazon literally stole the 7 inch market and showed the world that 7 inch is still a bigger real estate. The Success of Kindle Fire provoked Google / Samsung to come up with Nexus 7 which in turn forced Apple to announce iPad mini. Completely against the late Jobs who once had said 7 inch is too small for tablets.
Samsung ventured into the 5 inch space and called it Galaxy Note, which is basically a very BIG phone a very small tablet. Sounds a lame idea but was very effective among the business executives for its ease of use in addition to stylus. Yet to see any other company come up with their 5 inch. Galaxy Note was such a popular brand that Samsung released Galaxy Note 10 inch version too.
In the current market, apple is like a idly shop that only sells idly from morning till evening and makes millions out of it. He has no branches and is unique in his approach;
Samsung is like a multi cusine restaurant, he relies on the fact that it has a product for each type of audience and can cater to his needs
