The State of Smartphone Innovation
- Brennan Jordan
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
The state of innovation in the mainstream smartphone industry is relatively uninspiring. Apple's most recent event on September 9th did not draw much fanfare. We learned that Apple is introducing an ultra-thin iPhone Air, and we’re getting even more upgrades to the camera element for the iPhone 17. The battery has been improved, but is there any guarantee that the battery will maintain its quality by the time the iPhone 18 comes out?
Even the people at the YouTube channel, Apple Explained, seem to be becoming more critical. As shown in this recent video: Why New iPhones Aren't Exciting Anymore.
(As an aside, the the announced AirPods Pro feature of being able to translate conversation in a different language in real time is admittedly pretty cool. But we’re more interested in the smartphone element.)
Take the camera improvements, for example. If you are a content creator or someone who likes making cinematic films, the iPhone camera can be a major tool. It's certainly possible that the most recent enhancements are a value-add to that crowd. But that is a niche consumer base. Also, the pictures are almost unrealistically high definition by now. If you focus on the details of a portrait mode photo (or even a standard one) versus what that photo looks like from our actual eyeballs, it's a bit odd how different the perspective is. It's disorienting to create an image that is distinctly different from the tangible one we physically view in reality. Don’t get me wrong, there are gorgeous photos that people take with their iPhone. But are we all trying to be professional photographers?
On the flip side, something we admire from a competitor is the Light Phone 3 camera. Check out some of the photos that come from that camera:
To put it simply, they just look more genuine and authentic. They capture what the world looks like in a more honest way. The aesthetic is natural and there is something really pleasing about that.
But, back to the iPhone. The reality is that there is simply only so much that you can do with the iPhone and other similar devices at this point. More so, do we really need a new smartphone every year? According to the World Economic Forum, about 5.3 billion smartphones were set to become e-waste in 2022.1 That’s not a desirable outcome and building phones that last should be major priority. It would seem like an ethical imperative.
Are we seeing genuine innovation here, or just iterative updates designed to sustain the annual upgrade cycle revenue boom?
At SLEKE, we obviously believe that there is something to be desired here. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be a company aiming to fill this perceived gap in the marketplace!
So, what might smartphone innovation look like?
To us, we see the value in an intentional design approach. An approach that deeply considers how design elements affect the User on the other end of the interaction. This is exactly why we've built our OdysseyOS into the phone. We aim to make the phone a Swiss army knife for life, surfacing the tools you need without the distractions you don't. A device that simply does the job of making your life easier from a tech standpoint. As consumers, we deserve to have options that don't see our precious attention as a resource to be extracted. What's surprising is that this should not be a novel concept, yet it seemingly is.
Why even is our attention so important? Because, as Tim Wu noted in his great book, The Attention Merchants:
As William James observed, we must reflect that, when we reach the end of our days, our life experience will equal what we have paid attention to, whether by choice or default. We are at risk, without quite fully realizing it, of living lives that are less our own than we imagine.
So why is it that we continue to let the tech products in our life commoditize our attention and our time? Maybe the frog boiling in water metaphor is apt here. The first iteration of the iPhone was amazing. It was innovative and it was truly additive to life. But, slowly but surely, over the past 15 years or so, the smartphone has subtly continued to develop a transaction-based relationship with the User. It's increasingly difficult to determine the extent to which modern smartphones help us or exploit us. But what we do know is that they have become a borderline requirement to function in modern society. So, in a sense, the User is handcuffed and married to their smartphone, for better or worse.
But, alas, there is hope yet. Hope in the form of SLEKE and other companies reimagining what technology can be. Beyond our own work, we have to tip the cap and give a nod to some of the other companies out there looking to do tech differently. Innovation is not dead, it just looks different and is harder to find. We just need to build awareness as a community, and consumers simply need to opt out of the current smartphone paradigm and seek alternatives. All the tech rage recently is about agentic AI. What we need are agentic humans that make different choices. Alright, maybe agentic AI would be cool, but… just sayin'.
As mentioned, there are other companies doing cool stuff out there. Our philosophy differs from the Light Phone, but that company is pretty great. Even companies like The Minimal Company are doing something new and different. A lot of people are loving the idea of bringing back a physical QWERTY keyboard.
Another recent company we've found that is noteworthy is Fairphone, based in Amsterdam. Hardware manufacturing is something we aspire to someday, and what Fairphone is doing is pretty impressive. They seem to be doing something like Supernote in the sense that their hardware is built as replaceable modules. This is a business ethics decision to fight e-waste. So, when the battery degrades over time, you can simply replace it rather than having to get an entirely new phone. They specifically set out to create products that last as long as possible. They espouse a set of firm values that resonate with us as well.
Innovation doesn't always mean developing something new—at Fairphone, it's about purpose. We ask ourselves: what do people really need? And how do we ensure our designs meet user needs while also considering the makers of our devices and their impact on our planet?Innovation doesn't just start with the end user. It starts at the source: how is the phone made, who uses it, and how long will it last? We call this "impact through innovation." Great performance. Real values.
Hear, hear!
We do believe that the SLEKE device can stand above the rest in the sense that it is the right happy medium. Where some smartphone alternatives introduce a deliberate sense of friction that ironically increases time spent on the phone, we believe in leveraging the useful components of technology to bring convenience to your life without relentlessly distracting you. Less time on the phone, more time out in the world. More time with friends and family. More time pursuing that hobby you love.
What would our world look like if people did indeed decide to opt out of the current tech paradigm? Picture reading a book without the urge to check your phone every few minutes. Dinner conversations that aren’t constantly interrupted by notification buzzes. Imagine a whole bunch of SLEKE users out in the world, free from the algorithmic pull that consistently beckons us to leave the moment. Crowds of people who look up from their devices at concerts rather than experiencing the stage that’s right in front of them through a screen. This future is possible, it just requires agency on our parts. We have to realize we have more choices as consumers. And we have to find some backbone to make those choices. There’s a future where our tech devices are built to last and made in easily repairable and replaceable modules. Technology that works more like a well-designed tool. Like a quality hammer or a reliable car rather than a slot machine. Devices that shun the unimaginative attention theft that is so commonplace. A phone that surfaces your calendar when you need it, helps you navigate efficiently, and then gets out of the way. Tech that doesn’t harvest your personal data as a business model.
This is the world intentional technology can create. The question is: are we ready to choose it?
Either way, there is a growing movement in tech innovation that we love being a part of. It is very new, to be sure, so it’s understandable that people are relatively unaware of the alternatives out there. As one of our founders, Brennan, recently said in response to Andrew Yang's new mobile phone plan that has rebates for users who use their phone less:
"Every day, more and more people join in the effort to reconnect people with real life. A welcome change after almost two decades of product innovation in the opposite direction."
Steve Jobs once said that "innovation comes from saying no to 1,000 things". At this point, it may be 1,000,000 things2. There are a million apps that we don't need. On the road to elegant simplicity, what is omitted from our smartphones will be just as important, if not more important, than what shiny features are added.
As Apple with the iPhone and other legacy companies iterate in circles, we see an opportunity to break the cycle entirely and create technology that actually respects your time and attention.
Thanks for reading.
Do Cool Stuff.
~SLEKE.
What We’re Reading and Watching
A fascinating piece where the author goes further into the idea that people trust chatbots more than elected leaders. A new global study finds that 58% of people trust their AI chatbot more than elected officials (28%), with nearly 40% believing AI could make better decisions on their behalf than government representatives. The research suggests people aren't apathetic but are seeking responsive systems where their voices matter, as traditional institutions feel increasingly unresponsive while AI tools paradoxically seem more attentive.
This piece covers the first Senate hearing on AI chatbot harms. It featured families whose children died after interacting with AI chatbots, shifting the conversation from hypothetical risks to actual IRL tragedies. Parents testified that chatbots are designed to prioritize engagement over safety and blur human-machine boundaries, prompting bipartisan support for legislation allowing victims to sue AI companies for harm caused by their products. For us, we believe that intentional tech cuts to the core of the shoddy business practice of championing engagement over everything. The User deserves better.
This is an interesting scholarly debate that looks into the effects of social media on our wellbeing. It dives into the work of Jonathan Haidt and analyzes whether or not the evidence shows that social media is truly the problem. What do you think?
