Waiting to Ship

We’ve seen this happen many times- An exceptional product that for whatever reason, never makes it to market. These are three excellent product designs that, as of today, have yet to make it into consumer’s hands.

The Jawbone

Jawbone has now been signed up with Cingular (which will soon simply be AT&T Mobile), to distribute its noise canceling wireless headset. They are taking pre-orders with a ship date that has yet to be announced. It looks like the only one of the three items sure to eventually hit the market. Besides having a gorgeous design, it makes claim to incorporate revolutionary noise canceling technology that allows the user to speak clearly at a conversational volume, and still be heard while calling from a noisy area. I have not demoed one myself, but their website has a well put together demo that sounds pretty convincing.

SHIFT

Though SHIFT looks like a tricycle, it is more like a learning bicycle; designed to help young children make the transition to a two wheeled bicycle- As the speed increases, the two rear wheels pull together, and widen apart again as the rider slows down. The SHIFT was designed by Purdue Industrial Design Assistant Professor Scott S. Shim, and two students, Ryan Lightbody and Matt Grossman. Although it won Taiwan’s International Bicycle Design competition, and earned itself a spot on the cover of TIME magazine, as of yet it has no manufacturer.

RollerToaster

Hot-shot industrial designer Jaren Goh has applied his skills to the age old domestic appliance, the toaster (and garnered himself a red.dot design award for his efforts). While John Q. Public living in a middle American suburban McMansion may not grasp the genius of this design, those of us who live in high density urban environments know that the first place where we lose space is in our tiny city dwelling kitchens. This space saving toaster design is brilliant in its simplicity… not to mention impeccably cool. Nobody has yet been able to answer for me whether it would be safe to wall-mount.

Comments

[Luca]

that does NOT look safe