Slashdot Mirror
Startups a Safer Bet Than Behemoths
Former Slashdot editor ScuttleMonkey raises his voice from the great beyond to say that "TechCrunch's Vivek Wadhwa has a great article that takes a look at difference between startups and 'established' tech companies and what they each mean to the economy and innovation in general. Wadhwa examines statistics surrounding job creation and innovation and while big companies may acquire startups and prove out the business model, the risk and true innovations seems to be living at the startup level almost exclusively. 'Now let's talk about innovation. Apple is the poster child for tech innovation; it releases one groundbreaking product after another. But let's get beyond Apple. I challenge you to name another tech company that innovates like Apple—with game-changing technologies like the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad. Google certainly doesn't fit the bill—after its original search engine and ad platform, it hasn't invented anything earth shattering. Yes, Google did develop a nice email system and some mapping software, but these were incremental innovations. For that matter, what earth-shattering products have IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, or Cisco produced in recent times? These companies constantly acquire startups and take advantage of their own size and distribution channels to scale up the innovations they have purchased.'"
Really? How amazingly successful were all those cell phones which only had touch screens and no keypad/keyboard before the iphone?
I'll grant you that they don't usually come out with entirely new categories of devices. But what they do which no one else does, is radically change them in ways no one else is willing to risk.
iPod: Reduce the buttons, polish the interface. Integrate seamlessly with iTunes. Made a user experience that was superior to anything else out there. Push for reasonable prices on content. Fought for and eventually won DRM free content with the publishers.
iPhone: Whole screen touch screen interface with just one physical button. A user experience that is superior to anything else out there. With the iTunes App Store they made it easy to get applications which users can be relatively sure will function well and not blow up their phones.
iPad: Completely redesigned the tablet computer interface. Something no other company was willing to do. Huge color screen and great battery life. It also hooks into iTunes and makes it easy for people to use.
I'm getting tired of all the trolls on here who continuously say that Apple sucks. I've got news for you all: the reality distortion field that Steve Jobs projects is JUST A MYTH! If Apple didn't produce insanely great products which people want to buy they would be out of business. In fact, had Jobs not come back Apple computer would have died years ago because they were simply trying to do what every other PC company was doing.
Too many self-proclaimed tech-heads forget that the vast majority of people out there don't care if a device has every feature including the kitchen sink. What most people care about is if the device just works. They don't want to think about it. They don't want to program for it. They don't want to fix it. They just want it to work every time they pick it up. There's no other company that does this better than Apple. Simple marketing tricks may boost sales in the short term, but you have to have a solid product to maintain it in the long term. Remember "Plays-for-sure?" I'm pretty sure my iPod and iPhone have both outlived that.
The Apple anti-fan-boys will easily dismiss this and I'm not saying Apple is perfect. Apple may not be first to market, but they are more than willing to push the market in directions no other major player is willing to go. As long as they maintain their fanatical devotion to design and ease of use, they will become the dominate player in the industry. And it's going to happen faster than anyone thinks.
Don't like their stuff? Don't buy it. But the market seems to like Apple products pretty well, and it's not because they're simply following what everyone else is doing. Fads change much faster than that.
"The avalanch has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote." -Kosh
These examples are dumb: iPod, late to the game mp3 player, didn't take off until they stopped their fixation for proprietary codecs.
What the HELL are you smoking? The iPod took off LONG before Apple abandoned DRM in iTunes. It took off a fair bit after Apple adopted AAC, and the iPod has always supported MP3...JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PLAYER OUT THERE. Seriously, what the hell are you talking about? What exactly is a "proprietary codec", as if that even makes a different in whatever point you're trying to make.
iTunes - appalling front end for a web-store and cruddy media management.
Subjective opinion is subjective.
iPhone, very late to smartphones, front end copied from N710 free media player.
Once again, pull the damned crack pipe out of your mouth, please. OMG, it has teh square icons! Ripoff!
App store a blatent ripoff of what linux users had a decade before and pay-apps in the infamous Lindows.
Uh huh. Steam did something similar. So have numerous others. It wasn't a huge innovation, but it was a damned good implementation on a mobile device. You're living proof of why willfully ignorant Linux fanboys are worse than the most ardent Apple yuppie fanboy.
Typical Apple hater post, Apple is only successful because it's "cool" yadda yadda. Smartphones sucked majorly before Apple released the iPhone. Now Apple has raised the bar significantly, which is a win for everyone. Competition is grand.
If you think Apple gear is "through the roof" expensive then you're clearly not operating in the real world.