The iPhone Is Not The End Of Innovation
from the it-keeps-on-going dept
There's just something when we see a dominant technology out there that makes people assume that no one will ever out innovate it, and then fear that we're stuck with the dominant player forever. Adam Theirer has a post discussing this concept in relation to a recent paper by Robert Hahn and Hal Singer, Why the iPhone Won't Last Forever and What the Government Should Do to Promote its Successor, which highlights how dominant platforms often appear insurmountable, but often quickly are defeated from unexpected sources. Thus, worrying about things like exclusive arrangements or if the platform is too closed off may be a waste of time. Eventually, the market ends up taking care of it. The paper points out that previous technologies are often declared the "end of innovation" as well, such as the Motorola MicroTAC flip phone (I had one, ages ago), which Fortune described in 1989 by saying:Portable phones won't get a lot smaller than this one. After all, they have to reach from your ear to your mouth.Take a look:
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Filed Under: innovation, iphone
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Progress
I really don't think its a waist of time at all, mainly because many times when you complain or hear others complain it will inspire someone to do something about it.
"I can do it better" has been the inspiration for many innovators.
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Re: Progress
Stupidity?
Ignorance?
Fuckstickiness?
I'd suggest you get a dictionary, but in this case it would have been redundant.
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Re: Re: Progress
But I agree such things do have a tendency to leap out and stab you in the brain via the eye.
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Re: Progress
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It's not just the hardware...
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It's not just the hardware...
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Smaller?!?
If the article had said "...won't get a lot shorter..." rather than 'smaller', it'd still be pretty accurate, wouldn't it?
Finally - You drop that thing, you crack pavement and break toes. We called them our 'brick' for a reason ;) I drop my phones these days and screens crack, components go flying, and cases break.
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Re: Smaller?!?
Perhaps a new phone that has an autovibrate feature where you can tell it to vibrate every so often (ie: you can choose to vibrate every 5 minutes or 10 minutes, etc...). Then you'll start walking around with a random buzz and your pants randomly vibrating repeatedly instead. Hey, it's an improvement. Or perhaps an electric shock every once in a while, that ought to wake you up.
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Re: Smaller?!?
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Re: Smaller?!?
a) being big
b) randomly overheating
Yes, I know, there's an app for that - it's called instant warmth
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Government?
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Re: Government?
Oh, they're very useful to the lobbyists that they listen to and are controlled by.
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Re: Government?
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2. large corporate entities will do all they can to KEEP the govt from promoting a successive competitor
3. for the life of me I can not figure out why the iphone is as popular as it is. small hdd, locked to a less than stellar network and a touch screen interface with no tactile responsiveness.
oddly, i would much prefer that my 120gb ipod had a phone jammed into it as an afterthought than any of the current iphone offerings... but thats just my twisted personal opinion :)
4. i had a couple different starTAC models... they were cool.
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Myself as well. And as phones, they far outperformed anything I've had since. That's progress?
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Plus:
It has more memory than any other smart phone built in.
It isn't an HDD, its flash memory.
Has a touch screen that's more responsive than those of competing machines, contrary to your assertion.
The ATT network where I live is not only quite good now, but has improved nicely over the last year since I got my 3G. Sorry your milage is different.
All that said, as tech improves, additional capabilities emerge and new companies appear, naturally, innovation is not dead.
Of course, nothing says that the next innovative product WON'T come from Apple. The article, in its comment about the Gov't supporting the successor, seems to assume that the next innovator after the iPhone will be a competitor of Apples'.
Apple has a record of topping its own products, innovating beyond its own beginnings. This doesn't mean that competitors can't beat Apple - eventually, I'd hope one will, if only to keep Apple on its toes! But don't count them out just because the iPhone now dominates the tech industry, if not market sales.
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between business - agree
legislating of exclusive arrangements is a different story
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iphone ischmone
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iphone popular because it standardized
In return, Apple essentially garenttess to the developer and user a consistent platform (screen size, operating system, internet and data access for every user-- since that's a requirement for buying the phone), not too mention almost garenteeing that the user is costumer who is more likely to spend money.
It is important to note that they also provide a decent product.
As oppost to microsoft (or microshi%). MS just tried to convert a desktop into a smaller screen. But since it is not as controlled as Apple, I can use any video player with any codec; i can use a sd card if i buy the right phone; i can use the whole phone an extra usb drive (again, I have to buy the right phone); I can use the phone on any service without 'jailbreaking' anything; I can have cut-and-paste WITHOUT waiting for a single company (that is Apple) to design it or allow someone else to design it... who the f are they to tell me what to do on MY >300$ device?
That said, they provided a consistency that every developer can use, and they designed a prodoct that was ment to be used by hand on the go!
The problem is that now they are preventing others from doing the same with Apple/ATT power of monopoly and intimidation... and that is where a govt is needed to change that power.
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Undisclosed Issues
The the purpose of this type of misdirection is to detract from side issues such as the responsibility of the vendor to deliver value to the customer. While everything comes to a natural end, eventually; vendors now have the capability to unnaturally "turn-off" your devices whenever it suites them. Thus your expensive device becomes a paper weight.
Yes the market should determine when a product has become terminal. However, companies should be constrained in taking arbitrary unilateral actions that damages the property that the customers have bought.
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Courts will have the final say on that score, and many States have consumer protection laws that also may impact those rights.
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Courts will have the final say on that score, and many States have consumer protection laws that also may impact those rights.
That's why you should always have an attorney to look over any kind of EULA or other contract before you agree to it. There are many issues involved which may not be apparent on the face to the lay person. Lay persons without the appropriate legal training who think that they can just read such things and understand all the legal implications involved are being foolish. Always get legal advice.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Undisclosed Issues
Perhaps even more egregious, do you think you would ever find someone at the game company who would actually negotiate the terms of a contract?
Personally, if any contract is to be considered valid these companies must provide you with a representative to discuss the terms of the purchase. The current approach of "contract by adhesion" should simply, in my opinion, be made illegal.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Undisclosed Issues
Easy answer: If the the publisher of that $50 game wants you to agree to some kind of EULA then you should consider the cost of legal advice in addition to the cost of the game and then ask yourself if that game is really worth the *total* cost. If everyone did that the the publishers would probably stop including those EULAs in the first place and just rely on copyright law. But as long as fools are willing to willy-nilly accept such legal agreements without legal advice then the publishers will keep including them.
Personally, if any contract is to be considered valid these companies must provide you with a representative to discuss the terms of the purchase.
That sounds like you're claiming the typical EULA is unenforceable anyway. Are you a licensed attorney or is that "legal" advice just another example of what I'm talking about?
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Re: Undisclosed Issues
Well, yes, I can't force them to serve me against their will, that would almost be slavery. But they can't arbitrarily turn off my devices if a contractual agreement says must provide me a service unless they are willing to pay damages.
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Re: Undisclosed Issues
The FDA analogy is kinda different because that deals with the health and welfare of people. Aside from the fact that the FDA is a corrupt agency I do think we do need a (non corrupt) FDA that does regulate food and drugs to some extent to ensure a certain degree of safety or at least proper labeling of products.
Phones are somewhat different. To the extent that safety and health are concerned I have no problems with regulation (ie: regulating cell phone frequencies and intensity to potentially reduce the chances of it causing brain cancer). To the extent that the issue involves ensuring a clean environment and reducing pollution I also have no problems with regulation. Of course there is the possibility (and in the real world this happens) that the government will pass laws under environmental and health safety pretext when the real motive has to do with playing corporate favoritism or helping someone with a potential financial conflict of interest. But ignoring such corruption I have no problems with laws that are meant for safety and environmental protection. The free market has little incentive to protect the environment and as a society we should, to some extent, value environmental protection and product safety over economic efficiency. After if we lived in a free market everyone would be able to purchase bombs and any gun they want. But of course, to some extent, we value safety more than we do economic efficiency. So some things we value more than economic efficiency and only then are free market distortions acceptable.
However, I also believe that people should have a good amount of health freedom and they should be responsible for their own decisions when deciding what medicine they want to take (be it natural/herbs or pharmaceuticals or whatnot). People should be properly informed about the potential risks of anything they want to take and the seller of a product should have proper labeling. However, if someone makes a decision knowing very well the potential risks of their decision and the studies or lack of studies that went into some treatment they want to undergo and the treatment does harm them it was their decision. While I do believe in the FDA regulating product safety to some extent I also believe in health freedom as well.
Now having said that, to the extent that an issue doesn't have anything to do with health and safety I am all for free markets. Of course there are limits, I do not think that a vendor should promise you X and deliver Y if Y
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Re: Re: Undisclosed Issues
Of course there are limits. I do not think that a vendor should promise you X and deliver Y if Y than X and Y must include at least everything that was agreed upon along with nothing that would reasonably make any aspect of what was agreed upon less desirable (ie: if I agreed upon a cell phone contract and then that cell phone arbitrarily had a 1 min advertisement every time I tried to use it but that wasn't part of the agreement then that should be a breach of contract even if the agreement does not explicitly say no such ads exist. This is a bit of an extreme example) unless those aspects were also agreed upon.
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Hence my FDA example. While we live, we still need regulations to assure that our food is safe. The fact that we die (or that an innovative product dies) has very little to do with an immediate need, if required, to regulate food quality (device neutrality).
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WHO assumed???
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It's the apps, stupid
(Of course, there'd be a native app devt environment too, but the "import app from iPhone source" would be prominent).
Or do developers agree when they submit an app to the app store to not develop it for other platforms ?
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Re: It's the apps, stupid
Now I dont see why they couldnt take the code and tweak the app and make it something else entirely but similar to the app for apple and put it on the xPhone. Remember apple doesnt like to have their stuff available for use on other devices.
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Re: Re: It's the apps, stupid
Nothing I've seen or heard in the tech media has mentioned anything like that - any number of developers of iPhone software have developed for Android, WinMo or console games.
Not that Apple might not love to lock them in - but I'd doubt the legality of such a move.
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It is ...
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Anybody Remember“The Prisoner”
What do you want?
Innovation. We want innovation.
You won’t get it.
By hook or by crook, we will.
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Fashion Innovation
The author of that quote didn't underestimate technological innovation so much as he underestimated the levels to which consumers would be willing to lower their expectations of sound quality because shortening phones (and the attendant elimination of "sidetone") has generally resulted in lower sound quality. I guess you could say he underestimated the ability of "marketing" to convince people that form and fashion are more important than function. That's the innovation here.
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Re: Fashion Innovation
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Re: Brand New Apple iPhone 3Gs 32GB
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Sort of shoots down some of the favorite theories around here, doesn't it?
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Sort of shoots down some of the favorite theories around here, doesn't it?
Only for those who haven't read what we've written here.
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To give you a nice metaphor:
"Traffic jams slow down traffic."
"I'm in a traffic jam and still moving, so I just disproved your theory!"
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