xocolatefoot t1_j8sam86 wrote on February 16, 2023 at 4:30 PM

A solution looking for a problem.

CantPassReCAPTCHA t1_j8siyn5 wrote on February 16, 2023 at 5:24 PM

That’s kind of the point of R&D though. “Hey, we can do this” “why would you need to do that?” “Idk but we can do it now” then it sits on the shelf until an appropriate problem comes along

Afexodus t1_j8tizr6 wrote on February 16, 2023 at 9:08 PM

That’s the point of pure research. R&D is both research and development and it generally aims to solve a problem. Research is done by universities more often while R&D is done by industry. That’s not to say that university research can’t look to solve a problem.

I am an R&D engineer and the number of companies that fund research that doesn’t solve a problem is very very few.

A foldable phone tried to solve the problem of allowing for a larger screen while fitting in a pocket. There was a problem to solve. Studying butterfly migration for the sake of understanding them better is research that doesn’t solve a problem directly.

xocolatefoot t1_j8thlar wrote on February 16, 2023 at 8:59 PM

Fair. I guess that’s the viability they’re exploring, unlike everyone else who got excited and released them and now has to warranty them and try to retain unhappy customers because the durability vs. utility does not compute.

User9705 t1_j8tlgda wrote on February 16, 2023 at 9:23 PM

Do it to counter Microsoft duo phone… oh wait… they didn’t release a duo 3? .. ok.. hey everyone go home and have a beer. We are about to send a text with pizza coupons. You’ll need it.

SpecialNose9325 t1_j8vpyr2 wrote on February 17, 2023 at 7:50 AM

And to add to that, Innovation in one field doesnt necessarily mean innovation in another field that relies on the other.

Bluetooth has gone on all the way upto v5.3 with a shit tonne of features. Meanwhile the average equipment manufacturer barely even needs v4.0 to get all their intended tasks to work. And the implementation nightmare of hardware limitation vs software/protocol limitation is absurd. Bluetooth Audio is straight up trash and the only way to get good audio is to design your own proprietary profile and not share it with anyone, which is what every major device manufacturer does.

Parafault t1_j8u2rzz wrote on February 16, 2023 at 11:14 PM

I think it would be useful. Phones are getting so big that they no longer fit into pockets, but a foldable phone would solve that by allowing you to fold a much larger phone in half, and fit more processing power/disk space in it.

m_willberg t1_j8w0mnu wrote on February 17, 2023 at 10:16 AM

So, companies are creating a problem that they will "fix" with pricier product.

There are bunch of people who would buy smaller phones, me included. But I had to buy an older used model as the new models are just too expensive (s10e vs s22)

spudddly t1_j8zxzu3 wrote on February 18, 2023 at 4:09 AM

Samsung's Fold phones are fantastic - ~2/3 the size of a tablet when unfolded so great for browsing, reading etc... but folds up into a (thick) phone size that fits into a pocket easily.