The Next Big Thing

A cell phone company’s corporate office

CEO: This text-messaging thing has really taken off. Everyone seems to like communicating with their friends and loved ones without actually talking to them face to face. Problem is, every company offers it now. We need a new idea. A futuristic texting, if you will, to take to the public.

Inventor: Well, I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while. The only problem I can see with texting is the fact that it involves bodily motion.

CEO: What do you mean?

Inventor: Well, sir, the thumbs are involved. I’ve done some research and I’ve discovered that the thumbs are the problems to all of texting’s problems. Misspellings, finger cramps, possible arthritis from overextension, and the general fact that it’s time consuming.

CEO: Well what can we do?

Inventor: As you know, most cellular devices now are equipped with a full keyboard in order to text, browse the internet, etc. At first, I thought that was the most we could do to eliminate confusion based on the old keypad. I’ve discovered something else.

CEO: Well, get on with it.

Inventor: It would involve installing voice to text software on every one of our phones. Our customers could talk into their phones, the audio would be translated into a text, and sent to the recipient.

CEO: This sounds expensive, but potentially groundbreaking.

Inventor: Yes, sir. I believe it could be. But then I continued thinking, from a cost-saving perspective. What if, instead of using the voice to text software, we left each message in the audio format and delivered that to the recipient.

CEO: It would be all the fun of talking to your friends without actually doing it in real-time.

Inventor: Brilliant, sir! And that’s exactly what I continued thinking. What if, instead of a message, we invented some device that allowed our customers to speak with their friends and loved ones in real time. It would potentially have a speech input device and an audio receiver on the other end to allow for the two parties to communicate instantaneously. I know it sounds crazy, sir, but I think this type of technology would revolutionize the text-messaging industry.

CEO: You, my friend, have just earned yourself a promotion and a rather large bonus.