According to a panel of engineers that study consumer behavior, the trend of standardized platforms used in developing embedded systems is expected to accelerate dramatically. This analysis and opinion was largely influence by the influence of iPhones on consumers in 2007.
At the Embedded Systems Conference, the director of interaction design at Smart Design Jason Short referred to the first iPhone version as “the epitome of user-centered design”. However, Short wasn’t the first to praise the iPhone’s design. Editor-in-chief of Tech Online Patrick Mannion also called the iPhone “a feat of software design and consume enablement”, while David Carey of Portelligent referred to the iPhone as “glass cockpit whose most significant feature was almost dispensing fully with the keyboard and directing the users toward the iPhone’s touch-activated screen”.
Engineers are reconsidering how consumers use electronic devices based on the success of iPhones. Now, many experts are shifting design emphasis away from hardware embedded in a device, but towards software that is capable of applications while
Since most devices today are not user-friendly, such non-technical devices like the TiVo and iPhone that uses standard software to simplify an embedded system allows for consumer ease-of-use.
The panelists agreed that making a device simple and more user-friendly tens to require a higher level of complexity in its software designs. A further trend forcing designers to layer over hardware with software applications is the need to integrate different devices into a single environment.
The panelists agreed “with all the range of devices available in the market, consumers can’t keep up on taking on all the technology”.
David Carey noted that although various Apple competitors struggle to keep pace by launching different devices, Apple has remained to move slowly, offering only two or three variations of its basic product since its launch.
“Apple is very satisfied to go very slowly, shipping its product and very slowly bringing the consumer along,” he said. “Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.”
