Post by Steven Dale
Why was Apple able to get its tablet to market before everyone else? And why were they able to reap so much profit from it?
As much as we’d all like to see more innovation and invention in the cable industry, who’s going to pay for it?
Research and development is expensive. The way that a successful company makes money is by taking a business model that works and rejigging it into a variety of different forms in order to maximize revenue – and minimize costs.
When it first came out, it was common to hear people complain that Apple’s phenomenally successful iPad was nothing more than an oversized iPhone.
But that was exactly the point.
They took what they knew already worked and changed it into a slightly different form thereby opening an entire new market.
That they didn’t reinvent the wheel allowed them to bring a mass-market tablet device to market long before every other major tech company while simultaneously minimizing research, development and design costs.
As happy as I was to see the debate and discussion that arose from this week’s Minivan post, I think it important to reel in the discussion and ask people to consider ways to innovate and reinvent the technology that doesn’t involve mass engineering changes. Remember: The train has barely changed in the last 100 years, so why then should the gondola?
As it stands currently, the industry has little incentive to innovate. People are buying their products and their products are even being used sans innovation in mass urban transit applications – despite the fact that some still don’t believe ski lifts are appropriate in cities.
What then is the motivation for innovation, invention and change?
That’s not to say that the industry shouldn’t. Instead it’s to ask: Why would they bother?
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Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
