Articles
Innovation in America: An Endangered Species
Friday, December 3, 2010 / Apple Culture, Business, Microsoft
If innovation were an animal, the government would’ve put it on the endangered species list by now. I have many opinions as to why this has happened, but then again, I have a lot of opinions about everything, including my opinions.
Now, we shouldn’t confuse innovation with change: the rate of change in technology is becoming mind-boggling. But all the change reminds me of a swarm of locusts descending on a field. Each little locust doesn’t account for much. But as a swarm, it becomes an entity unto itself and has enormous impact regardless. So lots of things are happening, but not so much in the way of innovation… just a lot of copying, and more of more. More internet all the time. More video. More ways to get video. More ways to get video into more places. More wireless everything. More wireless stuff that never seemed to have the need to be wireless until everything else seemed to be wireless. By the way, is anyone else wondering if all these wireless signals going through the air are ever going to reach critical mass and blow up all our heads one day?
Anyway, innovation has certainly propelled Apple to the top of several heaps, which is one piece of evidence as to why I think innovation is otherwise endangered, because this little company in a little city called Cupertino is quickly becoming a monstrous enterprise, mostly because of innovation. If innovation weren’t such an endangered species, Apple wouldn’t have had so many forests left open for invasion.
But with all of Apple’s success, what are all the companies out there doing in response? I’ll tell you what I see: copying. It’s as if none of them can understand that it’s innovation that’s driving the ship, so they just try to copy the ship.
Let’s take the iPad. Before the iPad, the numerous attempts at making a tablet computer failed miserably. The iPad comes out and is a runaway success and what do other companies do? They just copy it, as if suddenly there is a market that materialized out of thin air. There was always a market for iPads, it just needed a company to create a product that would satisfy the need. A little innovation, if you will.
The same thing is true with the iPhone. Before the iPhone, using a cell phone was about as complicated as launching the space shuttle. 90% of the populace used 5% of the features, while the other 10% could turn them into devices that would make James Bond jealous. I have to think cell phone companies were all copying someone’s original design, with no one considering the possibility of changing things up. But along came Apple – who wasn’t even in the cell phone business at all – and they changed the game. So then all the cell phone companies, who had absolutely no business allowing Apple onto their turf in the first place, started copying the iPhone. Hello? Can we dial 1-800-innovation?
Maybe Microsoft is to blame for making imitation stylish. They became a behemoth copying the Apple OS and got into other markets well after the first innovator started the ball rolling.
So now that Apple has surpassed everyone in popularity and notoriety, with sales increases that are mind-boggling for a company its size, maybe someday innovation will be in style again, and we’ll start to see fresh ideas instead of everyone just copying Apple. But first, manufacturers have to stop worrying about copying Apple and try to come up with their own ideas. After all, Apple can’t possibly corner the market on the best engineers and great ideas.
It’s just looking that way right now….
December 7th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
Many of the noteworthy innovations, including the basic innovations behind Apple, originally resulted from government research or government sponsored research. (Think internet, for one.) One of the reasons we see less innovation is the retreat by government from basic research, and the enormously wasteful spending on military systems rather than technologies useful to human enterprise. But you are right, copy-catting has become the new norm. If technology strikes you as bad, look at pharmaceuticals, where it’s worse, with variations on a theme (already existing drugs) have replaced basic R&D. Ditto green energy, where we have abdicated to the Chinese.
December 7th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Actually there are two sets of people we have to embrace for this RACE to China or Mexico:
A) Politicians who wrongly believed consumers wanted the lowest price (but we didn’t want it at ANY price) and politicians letting big corporations send everything to China putting the American worker, in effect, out of work.
B) The people who rewarded Wal-Mart and their trade to race to the bottom of the pile, again at any price with a country who does not let us (very willingly) bring exports to them… who are they? Moms and Dads and those who did not really care about small business.
In the end, you guys didn’t really get what you wanted after all. We are seriously in debt to China.
December 7th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Brilliant! The copies are never as good as the one that was the innovation.
December 7th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I am not a man of the world (no, living next door to Canada doesn’t count), so I can only speak of Americans: we are lazy. I understand that’s a very blanketed statement, but hear me out. As generations have passed over the many years, each have shown a significantly noticeable decrease in willingness to do anything that requires effort. In fact, the only real effort nowadays that’s been put forth is geared toward streamlining activities to require less effort. Instead of blathering on with examples, I’ll simply quote a mentor of mine by saying, “You know I’m right.” Even as I typed this, I’ve just proven my point!
Once when America gets off of trend of trying to improve what’s already been created and start blazing a trail into the unknown we will be back on track to the greatness that America once was. Yes, we’ve lifted man off into flight, made the horse and cart obsolete with motorized vehicles, created the suburban lifestyle, and built computers that can perform billions of tasks in less than a second. There are more world-altering ideas and innovations out there and once we stop focusing on tweaking yesterday’s inventions to try and pawn them off as “new” we will be back where we belong: at the head of the pack!
December 8th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Agreed. This reminds me of the most annoying buzzword I hear regarding Apple every day: ‘product killer’. Whether it be the ‘iPhone killer’ or the ‘iPad killer’, you hear every day about a new product thats going to ‘kill’ the iPhone.
How is a tablet that looks identical to the iPad going to kill the iPad? The iPad was a ‘tablet killer’ because it was different than the rest. Someone needs to ‘innovate’ a brand new tablet that doesn’t look or function like the iPad to kill the iPad. Same goes for the iPhone.
I don’t see it happening any time soon…
December 9th, 2010 at 8:16 am
There is a fair amount of innovation going on in the U.S., but you need to look outside of the consumer electronics industry to find some of it. I work in the entertainment industry – TV mostly. There’s a camera company called RED Digital Cinema that’s developing new cameras with incredible innovations for the film and television production industry. A few short years ago, hardly anybody had heard of them. Now, some of the biggest upcoming movies are being shot with their cameras. And you’ll find them on the sets of low budget shoots too because they’re affordable.
Innovation is recognized when it fills a great need. As you mentioned, “smartphones” were too complicated before the iPhone. Apple innovated and filled a need. Want to know where innovation will happen in upcoming years? Exactly where there is a need for it.
December 9th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
“After all, Apple can’t possibly corner the market on the best engineers and great ideas.”
Given the extortionist increase in the price of a college education in the US (and in England, where the government decided today to triple student fees), it may well be that Apple CAN corner the market on the best engineers – there won’t be that many of them.
Much of the ascendancy of Silicon Valley was due to the cheap access to college education instituted in the creation of the three tiered California college system by Governor Pat Brown (Steve Jobs, being a college dropout, being an exception.} In the ’60s, anyone 18 years old or older could attend college. Community colleges, the base of the college system, were free. When I finished grad school at Berkeley in the mid ’70s, one of the nine colleges in the top third tier, fees were less than $700/year. Students now have to go into horrendous debt to even get a basic college education.
There will always be people out there with fresh ideas. Most will only reach fruition when they encounter an educated mind. A rare few will be sufficiently self-educated. The chances are greatly increased with a widely educated public.
December 30th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Reminds me of one of my favorite quotations of all time … from “The ‘Mary Gloster’” by Rudyard Kipling:
And they asked me how I did it, and I gave ‘em the Scripture text,
“You keep your light so shining a little in front o’ the next!”
They copied all they could follow, but they couldn’t copy my mind,
And I left ‘em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind.