For decades in the past, the capabilities of silicon chips have been the drivers for the software business- how we design the software and what functions can be performed based on these silicon chips. Capital-intensive fabs of the silicon industry decided that only a limited few large players can dominate the markets and thus the products based on these chips have more or less the similar fashions on how they can behave – like the PCs in decades. Limitations of the chips were directly reflected in the limitation of the software. Everything behave like computer or machine logics.
Tidal waves of consumer electronics are coming. Mobile devices have proliferated in every corner of the society – smaller nimbler faster chips, multi-functional units, versatile designs, lighter weight, smaller footprint, multiple global vendors, ubiquitous customizations,…, all come from the boom of consumer needs which challenge seriously the traditional ways of making hardware and software. Now things have completely changed- hardware chips can almost be produced just in time based on the needs of the device manufacturers and software companies. New techs like 3D printing, new manufacture concepts of leased manufacturing based on customized specs, etc. allow design innovations to blossom like never before. Enhanced human interaction needs also render beauty, intuitiveness, versatility, flexibility, connectivity, portability in the design of every modern product.
This is a new revolution- It’s all human again in using the technologies.