Hardware vs. software (open thread)
Is new hardware or new software what results in the most stunning technological advancements? Will software be what follows technological breakthroughs in hardware, or is it the other way around? ..Any thoughts?
(If not, open thread.)
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Its a combination of the two. Without god software, hardware is useless. Without good hardware, good software is hard to use. But if I had to pick, I’d say that software is more important.
Really? That sort of thing would net you some fairly hearty laughter on any meeting with industry leaders. That software wouldn’t simply be following hardware, but influencing where and what hardware would be developed - heretical.
The industry doesn’t seem to understand anything; i.e. the iPhone blindsided Nokia, SE, Samsung, etc. The industry leaders can laugh all they want but looks who’s losing the battle. Frankly, ‘corporate thinking’ is an oxymoron and seeing as I’m the consumer and they are not, I’ll have the final laugh when they liquidate their assets because they can’t keep up with the iPhone, Android etc.
I love my M600i and use it because it has more functions than my iPhone. But the iPhone is hard to leave behind simply because the software BLOWS UIQ 3.0 out of the water in just about every way. (Note: I’m speaking in usability terms not features)
No matter how powerful your hardware is, if the software is useless then so is the device. Good software can save mediocre hardware, however. Software is the interface of the device. If people don’t like it, can’t use it, or it impedes their workflow, then the hardware is irrelevant. The industry leaders should probably wake up and listen more to consumers and less to the marketing department.
I think it’s more up to software than hardware. Really innovative leaps usually happen because people figure out how to push hardware in an unexpected way.
Theyre both highly interlinked. First and foremost, its the hardware that will initially attract people to a device (their interest will depend substantially on whether or not it looks good, whether or not it has the specs they want, so forth). That said, the software can contribute hugely to the end user experience (e.g. iphone). I think its a case of different things for different people. I, for example, would classify myself as a techy, and as such Id go for hardware most probably, because Id want the specs first and foremost. Software alone will never give you optical zoom, or a wireless LAN connection, or better battery life. So the most powerful phone could never be only software oriented with very little hardware.
The sizeable portion of the market who want ease of use, however, probably more than sophisticated functions, may prioritize the software more than the specs.
So theyre both important, but at the end of the day, you cant have one without the other, they work hand in hand, and the functionality of one relative to that of the other must be implemented to give the best of both worlds, a trade off for the best factors you want included in a device positioned in a certain way.
On a side note though, although hardware allows you to do greater things in the end, hardware is limited, and will reach a point when there is either no means or no need to improve it further. Software, however, particularly in the area of UIs, can stretch as far as imagination and hardware can allow.
I second Onyx, in my opinion, metaphorically speaking, hardware is like our body and the designer clothes are the softwares. A person may be short and stout but if dressed well, would surely stand out. Hardware is constant and if anything that could worked upon it’s software.
Corporates are because of us, but yes, that are capable of brainwashing. And only knowledge and companionship of knowledgable people(like you all) can save us and must save us.
For me, the most stunning advancements happen when new hardware and new software in the same new product work together seamlessly, strengthening each other.
Examples in my opinion are that phone from a fruit company with a name heard almost too often, the OLPC notebook and the original PSION handhelds.
Trouble is, few companies are into hardware *and* into software as well. Too much specialisation therefore often gets in the way.
Hardware people and software people in general should talk a lot more with each other, the various disconnects between the software people at UIQ and the hardware people at SE being one of many negative examples.
Of course the two (should) feed into each other.
As the Escher drawing that heads this article eloquently suggests.
also think of the fact, that the beloved iphone wouldnt be that great to use, if it had weaker hardware.
theres’s always ambivalency and if one part of hardware or software is worse then the other, the phone will suffer hard from this *thinks of his sloooooow w960*
Both are absolutely related.
However, what pushes developement, is the software, since it contains all of the ideas and possibilities. Things like iPhone are the proof.
Look at Gdesk - application available for simple hardware (like P990), yet so imaginative and stunning.
for simple hardware (like P990)
Uh, boy do I have to contradict here. Maybe the feature mix of the P990 is not that great, certainly the phone was delivered late, and the firmware crawled with bugs, but that’s *not* simple hardware.
The P990 as a computer beats anything, hardware-wise, that people had on their desktops as PC’s around 1990, which still amazes me to no end, having worked with those computers and even programmed them…
If the P990 was simple, everybody and its dog in China and Vietnam would build such phones and sell them for little money, bankrupting SE on the way.
Don’t think smartphone hardware is simple because it looks and feels simple.
Renee Bruner,
Indeed thanks for that! I actually used the word “simple” in a very WRONG context. I rather wanted to point it’s RAM limitations compared to later constructions, what didn’t prevent developers to make amazing apps for that.
I absolutely agree with you, it’s a really complex and advanced device, as other smartphones, and IT IS amazing.
So, let’s modify what I stated before with your arguments. But, I still think that software becomes an inspiration, as well as hardware is an enabler.
rive:
Actually, the iPhone is a perfect example of how software belatedly turns up for an existing and already capable hardware. It can fill more textures in a unit than the m600, but otherwise it’s more or less identical inside.
(i.e., the iPhone uses software tech (OpenGL ES) that has been available on deployed devices for.. three- four years, and available in chip designs since right after 2000). ..So, could go either way on that one.