The wireless industry is one of the healthiest and fastest growing of all time. That frantic pace means industry direction and corporate leadership often changes every few years. We may be about to experience another event of such magnitude called Project Tango, which could transform the entire wireless industry and leadership once again. Or maybe not.
Before I discuss the new Google Project Tango and the new Lenovo smartphone using this technology, let’s pull the camera back to gain some perspective. Until the 1990s, Motorola led the wireless handset space. Then a decade later the industry shifted and Nokia and BlackBerry gained leadership sending Motorola to the basement. Then a decade later the Apple iPhone and Google Android platforms gained leadership sending Nokia and BlackBerry to the basement with Motorola.
The next big transformation is coming
Transformations are roughly a decade apart. We are now closing in on the next decade, so I have been awaiting the next, big transformational event. Through recent years we have seen plenty of innovation, but not reinvention. It’s time for another wave of reinvention, which will open up growth opportunities for the next decade and possibly new leadership.
That’s where Google Project Tango enters the scene. Google and Lenovo have been working on this new technology for the last few years and the first generation is about to enter the U.S. marketplace. Lenovo will enter the U.S. smartphone marketplace this summer with their first Project Tango smartphone.
How Project Tango will impact wireless
What can we expect? What new features will Project Tango introduce? Will it transform the entire wireless industry going forward? Or will it all be a lot of hot air like many other big stories of the last decade or two? That’s the real question.
Lenovo and Google talked about Project Tango at CES and whet our appetites. Since it has been several years since a new, revolutionary introduction in the smartphone world was made, it has the marketplace abuzz. However, neither Lenovo nor Google actually spelled out what Project Tango would do, how it would do it, what it would cost and how it would transform the entire wireless industry.
Project Tango is not a threat to the wireless networks like AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile US and others. However, I think it will be a challenge to these network operators to enhance their networks in new ways to support Project Tango. If there is a threat to networks, it would come from the Google mobile virtual network operator or something similar.
The real competitive threat may be to other handset makers. The next question is will Project Tango be included in regular Google Android devices or will they be separate? If Project Tango is successful and is available as a feature on all Android devices, will it be on devices from other manufacturers like Samsung? And how will Apple respond? As you can see there are still more questions than answers.
Will Project Tango transform the wireless marketplace?
We must remember that the iPhone and Android technologies completely transformed the smartphone sector several years ago. They created a new smartphone marketplace completely separate from the more ordinary smartphone market lead by BlackBerry at the time.
So will Project Tango be a completely separate device or will it be part of the traditional Android device lineup? Will it be a transformation or just an innovation?
Lenovo may have an edge
Lenovo acquired Motorola Mobility from Google and has been working on this for some time. Lenovo is a company we should expect serious competitive action from. So while it’s too early to say who will be the winners, the Lenovo Project Tango device should be taken very seriously in a competitive marketplace.
If this is successful, the next question is will this new segment become mainstream like the Apple iPhone and Google Android, or remain a separate sector like smartwatches, which are important, but not taking over the marketplace.
So for now we will just have to sit tight letting our imagination run wild. The only question is will this be the next hot sector like super-smartphones, or will it miss the big time like the Segway did and become part of the larger handset industry?
Innovation continues in wireless. So we may be watching another important sector of the smartphone marketplace be introduced with Project Tango. Or maybe not. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. So stay tuned.
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