IOT MOBILE
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“ Billions of people around the world use smartphones ... It makes sense that mobile apps are the preferred channel for accessing IoT ”
— IoT For All
ed 200 million smart speakers have been sold . Beyond power and volume controls ( both of which can also be operated via speech commands ), these devices have no physical , tactile UI .
However , we ’ re half a decade removed from Goodman ’ s prophecy of a Zero UI world and , with the exception of some niche areas , our relationship with technology is still firmly rooted in the screen . Why it ’ s important to remember the Zero UI craze is the context it created for the trend that rose in its opposition . In an interview conducted last year , Andrew Dunbar , general manager , EMEA at digital consultancy Appnovation , spoke to me about the emerging trend of Omni UI . “ It ’ s not about having no visible user interface ; it ’ s about having everything become an interface ,” he explained . Omni UI describes the ongoing transformation by which proliferating smart devices turn every element of automobiles , smart homes and cities , and virtually every other element of modern life into interface points for the user . In an article he wrote for Information Age , Dunbar adds that “ one of the most intriguing aspects of the debate is where the interface no longer involves the consumer directly . A combination of
JULY 2020