The last couple of years there have been many technological improvements that made life easier. For example, near field communication has made payments with our bank cards (or smartphones for that matter) way easier. In addition, smart watches make life easier by enabling us of tracking our health and taking over certain functions from our mobile phones. However, the Fast Company and NewDealDesign have created a concept named ‘Project Underskin’. Project Underskin would take the wearable market to a more personal level, namely under our skin, and would cause a potential disruption in the wearable industry.

The interface would be personal by appearing and dissolving when appropriate. The wearable would be placed under the skin of your thumb and has two interfaces, one on the upper side of your hand, which is ‘public’. The other display would be visible in the palm of your hand and is focused on ‘private’ use. Wireless technology would enable the device to wirelessly communicate for e.g. medical and security applications. Two examples of this would be the ability to open a door with electronic locks that identifies your identity by this wearable, which would enable keyless entry to your home. Another idea is that your credit card can merely be used whilst being held by the hand that has the wearable under the skin. The idea is that the device uses energy directly from your body. It could incorporate various biosensors that multiple health or medical alerts to pop up if needed. Furthermore, it would be possible to exchange contact information by shaking the other persons’ hand.

Although this concept is far from reality, the designers ought it possible to have created a particular piece of technology in around five years. What is your opinion about this wearable in particular? Do you think that in five years the tech industry is able to make a certain device to disrupt the wearable industry?

Sources:

– http://newdealdesign.com/work/project-underskin
– https://www.fastcodesign.com/3036175/from-the-designers-of-fitbit-a-digital-tattoo-implanted-under-your-skin
– http://healthtechinsider.com/2015/04/28/project-underskin-mission-possible/

It all started with Johannes Gutenberg who invented the printing press in the 15th century. This disruptive invention enabled the mass production of books and it could be seen as the beginning of the book industry as we have known it for a centuries.

For a very long period of time, publishers the main channel of bringing books to market. As an author you had no other choice than licensing or assigning rights of your work, either via an agent or by yourself. Publishers then exploit these rights by producing and selling the books to retail stores and content developers.

This way of publishing books has quite some disadvantages for an author. First of all, it can take between 6 to 18 months before a book is published. In addition, the royalty rates the author is receiving are rather poor and authors only get paid a couple of times a year. Lastly, as mentioned earlier, authors lose many of their rights by licensing or assigning them to the publisher.

However, this traditional way of publishing has changed with the rise of the eBook. The increased popularity of this book format is empowered by two major technological developments. First of all, the development of better portable screens and the fact that more people carry one. Nowadays, reading an eBook from an eReader or tablet is almost as comfortable as reading a printed book. The second technological development, the Internet, has enabled us to access content at any place and at any time. Without these two technological changes, eBooks could have never competed against printed books.

These new business models focused on eBooks are delivering value to customers in three different ways. EBooks are first of all cheaper than their printed counterpart. Moreover, buying and reading eBooks at any place and at any time is very convenient for the customer. Lastly, as these online stores are not limited by shelf space, they have huge variety of content.

The same value proposition goes for audiobooks. This development is also powered by the increased accessibility of content, which allows customers to stream content to their devices. Companies like audiobooks.com also form a threat to the traditional publishers, as people have less time nowadays they also tend to read less. Audiobooks are therefore a good substitution.

In the coming years, we don’t think that the traditional business model will disappear on short notice. EBooks are still unable to fully substitute the look and feel of printed books. We do think however that eBooks and Audiobooks will become the primary engine of the book industry. We expect that successful eBooks and Audiobooks will still get a traditional book deal with legacy publishers.

Team 22

Mathijs Gast
Luca van de Meerendonk
Daniël Rustenburg
Aimé Wijffels