We are entering a world where the device is less important than it ever has been – the browser (and HTML 5) is the way in which applications of the future are being developed, and the whole point of such open standards is that they should allow for operation on any (compliant) platform.
And yet, strangely, this is meaning that the physical form of the device (as opposed to the software that sits on it) is becoming more important than ever before. Our recent launch of The Collection sees a focus more than ever on the design aesthetic of the device, differentiating through how it looks and how it does things much as (if not more than) what it does.
It feels like we are only at the very beginning of radical evolution of the form factors of devices, tablets and touchscreens the first of what are likely to be many iterations away from the “established” Screen/Keyboard/Mouse form of the past 20 years. And there will be many device forms that will fail… just take a look at Bill Buxton's collection of stuff from the past three decades to see how many blind alleys we have been down already.
However, think that the tablet is as far as computers will evolve? Try this bendable e-paper mobile phone prototype for starters (thanks to @ferrar for the timely tweet…)
mmitII 