Birjees S Hussain: They must solve a problem

Some of the best gadgets ever invented are clearly the mobile phone, computers, a WiFi, numerous kitchen devices and of course the car. But even within these there have been numerous hits ‘n’ misses. Obviously the current mobile phone, whatever its make, is a hit as is the WiFi and the computer. You might notice that I didn’t mention the car or the numerous kitchen devices as a hit. The car is obviously a hit and something that is so indispensable that we cannot get from A to B without it. But over the past 30 odd years, many inventors have tried to reinvent the car in the hope of appealing to the shallower pocket and the environment.One of the most famous of such vehicles was the Sinclair C5 that was invented in 1985 by a Sir Clive Sinclair. Since it ran on electricity, the environmentally friendly aspect of it, it was only able to manage a maximum speed of 15mph. It was a tiny thing and looked clumsy and really vulnerable sitting in traffic next to a juggernaut. Suffice it to say that the vehicle was dumped, literally; it could have been because of its size or its lack of speed, it’s hard to say.

But this one was easy. VCRs were the in thing in the early 80s with everyone using a VHS cassette player. If you didn’t have one, you were not tech savvy. Then somebody thought, here’s my chance to get in on the act and create a competing product, and in came the Betamax. But its uses were limited because most videos that played the VHS (which most people had) did not play the Betamax and vice versa. Obviously a competing product was needed but clearly its execution was very poor.So was this one. Every heard of the rabbit phone? I hadn’t until last week. Apparently it was a precursor to today’s varied brands of mobile phones. But, like the Betamax, it too had its limitations in that you had to be near a specific spot to be able to use it. Of course, in those days, most “mobile” phones looked bad; they were clunky and looked like a telephone box