There are some technologies that we use that we think is such an innovation and we don’t know how it could get any better. These are often daily-use items or technologies that we feel work. What we don’t usually look for is the problems within them. This is what Jon Reynolds decided to look for in something most phone users use everyday, the keyboard. When looking for an entrepreneurial pursuit, he decided to not think of creating something new, but to make something better and easier. He saw that keyboards on phones were not as easy as they could be. He saw the work of individually hitting every key as difficult and challenged himself to make something easier for users. His solution was swiftkey.
SwiftKey is an app that you can download on your phone and it is a keyboard you can use. Instead of hitting every individual key, you swipe your finger across the keyboard hitting all the letters in the word you are trying to spell and it will write the word. No longer will you have to pick up your finger for every letter. Now you just have to lift your finger when you need to add a space between words.
As entrepreneurs, we need to realize is that there is no perfect system of machine. There is always a way to make something easier or better, or take less energy. Problems for us to solve are literally everywhere around us and it is up for us to find them and use our minds to innovate and create.
This is true thinking outside the box and goes with the theme of exaptation that we learned about in class. With such a HUGE market in the phone technology industry, entrepreneurs can think about anything and make it happen.
It is truly amazing that he was able to think of a way to make something better that is so common. It’s easy to not see the range of possibilities in something that we use so frequently.
It is cool to see how far this idea has come since its invention, this is a feature that now comes standard on most android smart phones. i think it is truly inspiring. great post!
I use this application on a daily basis, and would never use anything different. It’s important to remember that even technology is an industry that is rapidly changing every day, and it’s can be easy to overlook small improvements that benefit everyday users. This is a great example of someone who found a way to be successful by catering to those users.