Would you wear this?
A new company called Arubixs is developing a new kind of smartphone that you wear on your wrist. The Portal smartphone is designed to be rugged, waterproof, and flexible so that you can carry your phone without worrying about damaging it in spite of an active lifestyle. The phone can be bent so that it can slip into a wrist-worn carrier that conforms to the shape of your forearm. The product is under development, so details on the device remain sketchy, but the company indicates that it will run on the Android platform, and will have two side-facing cameras as well as two front-facing ones. It is also expected to have wireless charging capability. The company had an Indiegogo campaign that was taken down in October due to an intellectual property complaint, and as of this writing, the campaign has not been restored.
Even if the Portal never sees the light of day, the question remains whether or not this form factor responds to a real need. Having a full-blown Android smartphone strapped to your wrist seems to have some appeal, especially if it has the ability to communicate with Health Tech sensors or even incorporates some of those sensors itself. But it appears to be large and ungainly; the current generation of smartwatches look svelte by comparison, and even they appear to pose problems for users wearing long sleeves.
It may be that Arubixs has jumped the shark with this concept, taking available technology to an illogical conclusion. So the question remains, would you wear one of these?
