The Economist On Apple Innovations: Not Inventive, Just Innovative
from the how-you-put-it-all-together dept
We've suggested in the past that Apple's iPhone perfect demonstrates the difference between invention and innovation (i.e., there's nothing really "new" in the iPhone, but what's impressive is how Apple packaged all of it in a way that consumers find appealing). The Economist has picked up on this, apparently, with a cover story on how Apple innovates, where it notes that Apple isn't particularly inventive, but knows how to package up a bunch of outside inventions and make them useful. This is important, since so many discussions around innovation tend to confuse innovation and invention, and it can greatly distort policy debates when you think that the two are the same (or even that one is a proxy for the other). With that in mind, it's nice to see the Economist highlight the difference at Apple.
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Apple does not invent or innovate.
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I know this is going to insult the Apple fans, but Apple isn't as bleeding-edge as you might think. They just seem to have impeccable timing when it comes to pushing new (but existing) technologies into the public spotlight. True bleeding-edge companies blaze the trail for the rest of us by inventing exciting new technologies that nobody has ever thought of before.
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...and what exactly is it that people find appealing about the iPhone?
This particular "innovation" sounds more like "hype" and not much more.
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IPhone
Indeed as commented before this is not just an Apple sin, it's rather all over American business.
Not too long ago Intel's CEO seat changed hands, or butts; the new CEO or butt, made it a point in saying that he is going to change the direction of the company from a scientific/research institution to a marketing one!
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Defining discussion for patent?
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Dissent...
Granted, if I were a techdrone I'd want to compile my own MP3 decoders, but most of the folks who will benefit from the technology have a life!
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Re:
Do you really think that only idiots buy Apple products? Most people are know who have iPods are intelligent, educated people. I can say the same about people who buy Microsoft or Creative products.
Adam
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I wouldn't say it's so impeccable - remember the Newton? Or how about the Lisa? How about the Pippin?
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The difference between Motorola and Apple is that Apple focuses on continually improving their products. The first iPod - while interesting - was not all that impressive. Apple took what it learned and improved it. More storage. Interface enhancements. Incorporated new technology. Identified new markets. Thats innovation.
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then who does invent?
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yoshi
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If Apple was such a market leader, they would control more than 10% of some market that they don't loose money on.
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Re:
...morons...overpay...
I have owned 2 iPods: the 60GB (years back) and the 80GB. Both times, when looking around, reading reviews, comparing prices and capacities, the iPod in question was the best choice...in fact, both iPods were by far the best storage-capacity/price deal around.
It sure sounds like they marketed the hell out of lil ol moron me
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Re:
But I mainly want to make the remark that to the best of my knowledge, the VCR, CD and DVD were invented by Philips/Sony and not by smaller startup companies they just bought out.
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And frankly, ideas are a dime a dozen. The difficult is the actual implemenation.
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On morons and overpayment
It sure sounds like they marketed the hell out of lil ol moron me"
It really sounds like it. What on Earth are you going to put on 80 GB that you can play within the battery span of the device? Hell, within twice, or quadruple the battery span?
If I offered you a 4 TB player for $1000, would it make a better player just because it hits a better storage/price ratio?
It's not just about the ratio of feature/price. It's about what this feature brings you. It's about value. Value isn't linear as you increase a spec into obscenely large numbers.
I'm a proud owner of a tiny cheap Chinese mp3 player with a humble 512 MB storage, FM tuner, and USB mass storage interface. It costs $50. I'm using the damn thing for years and years with stock rechargeable batteries, and I never ever felt the need to cram 80 GB of content on it.
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Re: On morons and overpayment
Secondly, it is also nice to not have to worry about "out-growing" your devices capacity. I buy top-of-the-line in features now, so I wont have to buy bottom-of-the-barrel again in 6 months later.
The things I dont like about ipods are the inability to record audio through an audio-in port, or to record FM radio to it... and the size of the device (a bit larger than my front pocket). For gym, I use a Creative Zen PLUS - for travel, I use the iPod.
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Re:
Which is exactly what we're saying. That's the innovative part, not the ideas.
And the market rewards companies for implementing (innovating!) well.
So why do we need additional protectionism for ideas, when they're not the key point in innovation?
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Re: On morons and overpayment
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Re: Re: On morons and overpayment
The statement "It really sounds like it. What on Earth are you going to put on 80 GB that you can play within the battery span of the device? Hell, within twice, or quadruple the battery span?"
Does not make much sense to me....There are a number of reasons to have that much storage space.
I also think that this discussion proves the point. There is no "cookie cutter" solution that will make everybody happy. Apple has come up with a solution to fit many different needs.
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Apple and Innovation
The iPod is a great example. Apple produces something which by any count could not play its full complement of resources on one charge. But as someone who travels a lot it is great to have 40 gigs of entertainment from which I can choose on long flights. I also have capacity to grow, as mentioned above at a pretty good price. I have flown back from Asia a couple of times and used my 80 and my 30 and gotten through the flight. Apple pays attention not to what some techie wants but what a consumer wants. They then add in some features into their products which turn out to be very useful. For example in their laptops they were the first to install a video camera and a very simple program to allow video conferencing. When I bought my first laptop with that I did not think I would use it - now I use it a lot - it is simple and intuitive like a lot of Apple products. I am not sure whether that is innovation or invention.
iTunes is another example of something that is part innovation and part invention. Apple forced the labels to change their distribution model. They still would like a different pricing scheme but they are not going to get it. I've quit buying CDs because I can sample music before I buy it and then often not have to get the klunker songs on some albums.
If invention is coming up with new ideas then Apple does a lot of that. iTunes was a new way to sell music - which a lot of analysts suggested would not work and some are still pulling for the subscription model - which has a tiny share of the total market. iChat is a new way to think about communicating. Were there other ways to do that before? Sure, but the combination of using good technology and then actually listening to the consumer is critical. In my work Powerpoint is clunky and not especially useful - Keynote (which works off the original presentation software idea) has a bunch of great bells and whistles. Sure there were photo programs before iPhoto and Aperture but none are as useful to me.
So in my mind the distinction between innovation and invention is not important - every idea has some forbearer. I am not sure why AC is so animated about this maybe he has to use the clunky techie solutions that ignore what consumers want.
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Ideas
Edison once said that "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework." IMHO, we should not reward people who do the 1% of the work to the detriment of those who do the remaining 99%.
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iPods
To the idiot whose iPod got wiped when he plugged it into a friends computer, tell them to update iTunes, and set your iPod to manually synchronise. If you use vPod, then you have alightwieght program which can load music (but apparently not movies or art) onto an iPod.
A large iPod menas that all your music can be stored on there, then it can be recharged ona ny computer and lsitened to anywhere, as well as being used as a small portable hard drive.
What I would like to see would be the ability to rename on-the-go playlists from teh iPod, a eSATA + power connection, ability to save audio input, either from a mic or an FM radio, and a complete change to the way songes are organised, so that it simply copies the library file onot the iPod, with the media and image files organised precisely how they were organised on the computer. Ability for the iPod to rebuild the library on its own would be good to, since then no external program is needed, adn the iPod can be controlled directly from Explorer.
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iPods
To the idiot whose iPod got wiped when he plugged it into a friends computer, tell them to update iTunes, and set your iPod to manually synchronise. If you use vPod, then you have alightwieght program which can load music (but apparently not movies or art) onto an iPod.
A large iPod menas that all your music can be stored on there, then it can be recharged ona ny computer and lsitened to anywhere, as well as being used as a small portable hard drive.
What I would like to see would be the ability to rename on-the-go playlists from teh iPod, a eSATA + power connection, ability to save audio input, either from a mic or an FM radio, and a complete change to the way songes are organised, so that it simply copies the library file onot the iPod, with the media and image files organised precisely how they were organised on the computer. Ability for the iPod to rebuild the library on its own would be good to, since then no external program is needed, adn the iPod can be controlled directly from Explorer.
Oh, BTW, I would take a 1TB iPod for AU$1k, but not US$1k, because that would eb a reasonable price to pay for a 1TB external HDD. HTe actual player would not e a huge part of the cost.
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http://www.iphone-video-converter.org
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