Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that larger, deskbound computers can't reach. But as they shrink, these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too, such as efficiently dissipating heat.
The recent example of Apple's first-generation iPod nanos causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies.
"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult, the balance becomes more critical and there's less room for error," Kay said. "I'm not surprised it's happening to the nano because that's the small one. You're asking it do a lot in a very, very small package and that's pushing the envelope."
There's no question that industrial designers' jobs have become much more difficult as the industry demands ever more powerful and smaller gadgets. With paper-thin subnotebooks, ultrasmall MP3 players, and pinkie finger-sized Bluetooth headsets becoming increasingly popular, it's questionable where exactly designers draw the line between innovation and safety.
Batteries are a key concern. Most gadget-related safety hazards are due to faulty, cheap battery cells -- the most obvious case being Sony's exploding laptop batteries in 2006, which heavily damaged the company's reputation before it conceded to a recall.
Battery-related malfunctions come as a pressing issue because batteries have, for the most part, stagnated in terms of development.
They're also barely shrinking in size compared to the gadgets containing them. Therefore, designers are forced to design around batteries, and they're having less and less "wiggle room," Kay said.
Marijana Vukicevic, senior analyst of power management at iSuppli, agrees that safety is a concern with innovative new product designs. She's particularly concerned with how portable devices handle heat. She explained that since designers, such as Apple's, strive to innovate on the form factor, they detach themselves from tried-and-true methods that are known to be reliable.
It's not the outside appearance of gadgets that concerns Vukicevic, either: The arrangement of chips and layout boards in portable devices are subject to increasingly draconian size restraints.
"When you have a constant change in the devices, I think you have less room to prove designs," Vukicevic said. "That's more of an issue especially with portable devices because ... the changes are not, 'Let me move this from there.' The changes are always radical."
Howard Nuk, creative director of design consultant Frog Design, acknowledged that risk comes into play with innovative new product designs, but he said manufacturers and designers put diligent effort into testing new products before they make their way out the door.
Nuk explained that the challenge for designers isn't simply to make products smaller. While at first glance the trend in technology seems to be that devices are simply getting smaller, a more precise way to put it is that they're evolving into gadgets designed around humans rather than what gadgets can do, he said.
"What we're noticing now is less the idea of miniaturization but more so the idea of lifestyle optimization," Nuk said. "Right now we're at the point where technology can be more or less be any size. The focus is miniaturization in just the right spot to hit the perfect balance between comfortable interaction and pocketability."
Nuk used Apple as an example of how "pocketability" has evolved. When you compare the awkward, boxy shape of the original iPod with the sleek, rounded lines of the iPhone 3G, you'll notice the major difference (aside from functionality) is the depth of the handset, making it thinner and easier to fit in your pocket.
By contrast, the width and height of the iPhone are actually greater than those of the first-generation iPod. If the iPhone's screen were any smaller, web browsing wouldn't be as convenient and videos wouldn't be as pleasant to watch -- two key strengths that catapulted the iPhone to success.
However, Nuk added that if designers spend too much time testing a product for safety, technology would be at a standstill.
"Anything that is new definitely opens itself up to more risk, but without risk there's no reward," Nuk said. "We [designers] like to push limits as much as possible ... and there has to be due diligence in testing. But if you sit there and test and test and test you lose the chance to be innovative."
Photo: An exploded Dell laptop at Yahoo headquarters prompted a building evacuation on Sept. 20, 2006. Uvince/Flickr
