The ABCs of Smart Product Innovation for 2010: Four Core Criteria for Success

It’s time to prepare for a non-stop New Year’s flood of smart product and ecosystem partnership announcements, starting with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the first week in January, followed by the 2010 North American International Auto Show, Jan. 11 and 12 in Detroit, the mHealth networking event in Washington, D.C. Feb. 3 and 4, and the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from Feb. 15 to 18.

 

SPEC columnists will be covering all these events in addition to the launch of Google’s (News - Alert) Nexus One smartphone this week and Apple’s highly anticipated but still somewhat speculative iSlate debut later this month. To understand what’s going on behind all the smart product announcements, SPEC is also analyzing product platforms and tracking investment trends.

 

To round out the analysis, it’s time to consider the ABCs of smart product innovation in the form of four very basic criteria that I believe will be critical in determining which of this year’s smart products are destined for success. These four criteria are: Applications, Batteries, Connections and Screens.

 

Apple’s string of high profile achievements in selling iPhone (News - Alert) applications has every device maker and wireless carrier scrambling for smarter applications capabilities. A broad selection of applications and a thriving app development ecosystem are essential for all smart products, not just for mobile phones and consumer entertainment devices. The availability of smart apps is already helping to differentiate connected car platforms like Ford Sync and Mercedes mbrace as well as smart energy solution companies such as Control4. Look beyond the crowded mobile app stores for core applications combining home control, connected medical devices and integrated services for home, auto, health and energy monitoring. The platforms and products that integrate these domains through innovative applications are the ones with staying power.

 

From the most expensive vehicles to the smallest consumer devices, batteries will play a starring role in this generation of smart products—and it’s one of the key investment areas that Cynthia Artin will be covering in her Smart Money column in the next few months. Better battery performance is a clear requirement for mass market adoption of plug-in electric vehicles and smart energy storage for home and enterprise customers. Smaller, cheaper, longer-lived, and more dependable batteries are also essential for the success of smartbooks, e-readers, smart medical devices and hundreds of other products. Unsatisfactory battery life can short-circuit consumer adoption of otherwise appealing products; Walt Mossberg’s recent Wall Street Journal review of the Litl webbook noted its limited 2.5 hour battery life as a major drawback for potential buyers.

 

In my book, if a product is not connected to the world around it in multiple ways, it’s not smart enough and not likely to stay the course. Today’s options for connectivity include embedded cellular and wireless chips for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee and NFC contactless, as well as mobile barcodes scanned by smart cameras and barcode readers and thousands of ingenious ways to use a smartphone as a multi-device connectivity solution. Internet-connected cars, TVs, game boxes and kitchen appliances will be the norm in two or three years – look for companies that introduce better ways to connect all these devices to each other and provide consumers with a simple, intuitive interface to control them all.

 

The buzz about 3D TV at CES (News - Alert) may be a few years ahead of mass market reality, but an outstanding digital screen display is becoming an important product differentiator. Whether or not the iSlate actually appears on schedule, Apple (News - Alert) has consolidated its reputation for high-quality screen resolution with the iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac products. Like improved batteries, new digital display solutions require technology breakthroughs at the fundamental science level. Current investment in display technology from 3M (News - Alert) (which recently consolidated its display units into a new Mobile Interactive Solutions Division), i-Ink, the current e-reader leader, and other companies presage brighter, sharper and more colorful screens to come.

 

As smart products continue to crowd into the market, mastering these basic ABCs is a fundamental requirement for success.