Recently there have been ads regarding a cell phone that also has Dolby Digital surround sound which, to me, seems really kind of silly given the size and quality of the speakers they can cram in to cell phones. Pretty much anyone that wants a halfway decent sound from a portable device either uses headphones (thank you for not forcing us to listen to your "music") or they plug them in to something that is designed to accomodate external input like a set of powered speakers or even a nice sound system.
But I digress, the point of this is that there are companies that make great products & technologies that don't compete with other companies products or technologies where they could join forces to make a great product. The first one that came to mind was if they can jam some "surround sound" speakers into a phone, why don't they take it a step further and work with a company that has been focused on speaker technology like Bose or Harmon Kardon for example and integrate that into the phone.
Better yet, why not have a cell phone that has worked with Canon or Nikon to finally put a decent camera into a phone. We typically carry our phones with us everywhere and there's great shots to be had or memories to be recorded anywhere you go. I can't count the number of times I wished I had my Canon camera with me to take a picture because the quality of most cell phone pictures are typically so horrible and/or the charge you to send the picture off your phone to a computer (if your phone doesn't have a USB cable for data transfer or a memory card or other such technology) that I just choose to not take the picture altogether.
One such product I looked at this week where two or more companies have gotten together to create a neat consumer product is Google Tv. They've partnered with several other companies to provide content but for the hardware it's either Sony in the form of an internet enabled TV or Blue-Ray player or, probably more accessible and less expensive, the Logitech Revue. I don't own this technology but it certainly looks interesting and promising with some great potential to be a great consumer media center device.
I think if more companies would work on partnering with other companies on new & different ways to utilize & implement their technologies, the world would see some really interesting and amazing inovations that would go way beyond the entertainment examples I've referenced above. Just think what could be accomplished in fields of communication, security, health & medical, education, etc. Honda for example is one such company developing technologies that go beyond their traditional motor vehicle applications. They have a walking assist technology that is designed to help people with weakened muscles. And perhaps you've seen Toyota's "Ideas For Good" commercials where they actually advertise how the technologies they develop can be used in other applications with the idea in mind of making the world a better place. They have a website at http://www.toyota.com/ideas-for-good/ where you can see many other technologies Toyota developed and applied to other uses than what they were originally designed for (making better cars).
Many would agree that the introduction of chocolate and peanut butter many years ago has forever since been a great combination. We've come a long way since then and some great and even more complex ideas have been mashed together to create some amazing end results with a wide array of uses and applications. Think of how many different fields have benefited from the iPhone for example with doctors able to access patient medical data, or merchants able to use it to swipe your credit card for transactions, or even for consumers to use it as a type of barcode reader to get product information or check prices. What technologies, products, services, etc would you like to see joined together?
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