During Macworld 2007 Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone. In his announcement speech he said Apple has been very fortunate to introduce mind blowing innovative products: Mac, iPod and iPhone. Sony released the PS3. A game console and entertainment center all in one. It featured highly new technologies like motion sensors (done well) and Blu Ray. We tend to look at these products as innovative and new. But are they really?
I was thinking about these innovative things released lately and how some companies are seen as highly innovative and others as copiers. Apple is a clear example of a company that tends to release products not seen before and is seen as innovative. But I think they are not, neither are Sony, Nintendo, LG and many other companies. Not all but most.
Simply because the products released now that we see as innovative (iPhone, PS3, Wii etc.) have all seen the day of light way before it was introduced by the public. In the form of prototypes simple farmers and other people express their wishes and sometimes show physical evidence of how they want their products to be. These prototypes (pictures or real form), is what products ultimately are based on. They aren’t actually thought of by these huge companies.
Another fact why these hip companies like Sony and Apple aren’t innovative is that they adjust their product line up to the general vision of the people. If people see thin and internet able devices as the devices they want to carry then these huge companies adjust to it. But if tomorrow the trend changes to thicker multimedia devices then again the companies switch. This is also why you see bigger companies release the products we’d want sooner because they have more resources to adjust to our needs.
So who makes the trend? Who makes us nudge towards the thinner multimedia devices we want today? Well I think the media has a large part in this. We (at least some of us) are obsessed with Star Trek and their futuristic techs. Doors that open en close automatically, big touch screens, artificial intelligence and other technology. We want that even if we can remotely touch the surface of these media techs. But once our technology reaches the point that these products can be made, the big companies will immediately adjust their products to our wishes.
So do companies still play a decisive role in the product making phenomenon? Well of course. They are the one who will say: heck technology reaches the point that we can make this technology available to the public. And often the race to be the first starts at that point and sometimes one company is clearly ahead with brining a product we want in our hands. This was the case with the iPhone. So are they innovative? No they are not. The prototype guy was innovative, the media executive as innovative. Apple just was the first to offer the goods.
The real innovators are the prototype, media guys. Not the big companies. In the end they just adjust to the public’s wishes and offer the goods when it’s possible.
