Oddly enough, I read this article last week, about one hour before I went to my product design class - with Professor Karl Ulrich. We spent half the class talking about the Segway, and if I garnered anything from the lecture, the main reason for the failure (thus far) is because the company forgot the basic tenets of product design. Rather than creating a product based on customer needs (i.e. a portable dialysis machine), they tried to create customer needs based on a product family (dynamically stabilized transportation, a la the ibot).
As a side note, the Segway uses a lot of expensive parts, and two of them at that. There is one gyroscopic unit, but two motors, two controls boards, etc.. When you add it up, the price becomes unreasonable for almost anyone. Granted, most of us probably thought it was neat, but we definitely can't afford one.
I have two Linux boxes and one Windows box, and I happen to see the virtues of both - which is why I find so many of the comments here troubling. First of all, to imply that Microsoft bought this certification is childish at best. Secondly, in the original post, it says "too bad it takes three service packs." Are you telling me you haven't updated your Linux box three times because of vulnerabilities? Linux systems can be insecure too, and to fix them, you need updates. Plain and simple. Don't be stupid.
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Oddly enough, I read this article last week, about one hour before I went to my product design class - with Professor Karl Ulrich. We spent half the class talking about the Segway, and if I garnered anything from the lecture, the main reason for the failure (thus far) is because the company forgot the basic tenets of product design. Rather than creating a product based on customer needs (i.e. a portable dialysis machine), they tried to create customer needs based on a product family (dynamically stabilized transportation, a la the ibot).
As a side note, the Segway uses a lot of expensive parts, and two of them at that. There is one gyroscopic unit, but two motors, two controls boards, etc.. When you add it up, the price becomes unreasonable for almost anyone. Granted, most of us probably thought it was neat, but we definitely can't afford one.
I have two Linux boxes and one Windows box, and I happen to see the virtues of both - which is why I find so many of the comments here troubling. First of all, to imply that Microsoft bought this certification is childish at best. Secondly, in the original post, it says "too bad it takes three service packs." Are you telling me you haven't updated your Linux box three times because of vulnerabilities? Linux systems can be insecure too, and to fix them, you need updates. Plain and simple. Don't be stupid.