Eco-Chic products from Sony
There are a lot of conceptual solar powered cell phone prototypes and hand cranked chargers popping up in response to the strong consumer interest in more environmentally responsible products but in general consumer electronics usually lag behind in the development of green alternatives. In todays world where large OEM’s usually handle most of the manufacturing even for competing corporations, it’s very difficult for a company to deviate from the standard commodity electronic parts such as LCD screens and rechargeable batteries and still stay price competitive in this market.
Sony, traditionally has been a leader in paradigm shifting technology with their large research and innovation design budgets all though they have lost a lot of ground in the last 5-7 years to companies like Apple and Phillips. Today Sony looks to regain some of that innovation leadership through the development of their fresh out of the oven “odo” concept line of environmentally friendly products. The “odo” line of products do not require any AC adapters or chargers because they are mechanically powered. There is the Spin N’ Snap camera “no display”, the Push Power Play viewer, the Crank N’ Capture video camps, the Pull N’ Play headphones, and the solar array Juice Boxes for powering other devices.
My favorite hand cranked consumer electronic product concept continues to be the first version of the OLPC but with Sony coming into the picture, it probably wont be long before we can actually buy a well designed human powered consumer electronic product