Where's the innovation?

As I bounced around between Windows XP and  Mac OSX recently I had to wonder if John Dvorak might actually have wandered into one coherent thought in in his even stranger than usual article, "Is Vista a Dead End?" The first sentence of his second paragraph says this.

First, it's possible that Microsoft is out of ideas, and Apple is out of ideas from which Microsoft can borrow.

Now don't think for a moment that I regard Dvorak as a technology visionary.  In this months PC Magazine "Inside Track," he has this comment.

Cool Product of the Month Dept.: I visited with Kodak recently and got jazzed over the company's new photo service. If you join the Kodak Photo Gallery, you can buy something called a "photo book." This is a perfect-bound book of annotated photos that you've uploaded.

Dvorak obviously has not been paying much attention to the photo books that you have been able to create with iPhoto for several years, but my intent is not to bash Dvorak, there was enough of that done over at Digg.

What I do want to discuss is the importance of real innovation in the coming year.  Microsoft is finally going to  get Vista out the doors and  Apple is going to  roll out  the latest version of OS  X. Are we really going to see anything that advances the state of computing?  I really have my doubts.

The last time around Apple promised to change the way that I do computing.  It didn't happen unless you consider that I now use both Linux and Windows XP in addition to Mac OSX.   We actually have a couple of systems that  I left at version 10.3.9, and those systems have not gone up in flames.

I checked out  Apple's preview of Leopard where  they modestly state the following.

What do you do when you reach enlightenment? Keep going.

When you go over to Microsoft's preview, you find Vista decribed as a "breakthrough computing experience."  Both statements are of course marketing hype designed to lure us into another technology purchase.

Without trying I managed to crash IE7 the first day after I installed it.  This morning I was greeted with this screen from Safari.  If shows both vendors have a ways to go before that ultimate computing experience.

I did not exhaustively go through either Apple's or Microsoft's previews.  To do so would have been subjecting myself to a needless preview of points that I am sure will make it to me or more precisely be hammered into my consciousness.  I did look for some innovation.  Surprisingly the one thing that looked to be the most useful and innovative was on Microsoft's site.

The information about  "Windows Vista SideShow technology," seemed somewhat intriguing. Having a small secondary display on a laptop to view important information without opening the  laptop might actually be a  feature that I would use.  Of course unless Microsoft becomes a laptop vendor, we might never see it.   

Seeing Microsoft come up with something that users might want and use brings me to the biggest challenge that Apple faces beside innovating once again.  It's not a new one either.  Apple does not really care to listen to customers.

I can still vividly remember one of Apple's last business customer councils that happened when I was still at Apple.  It was reported to me by a high level attendee from one of the top five color publishing houses that  Steve  had confronted him as he was closing his Powerbook. Apparently Steve had told him that if he would pay attention he might learn something.

There has always been an elitist element to Apple. As one senior hardware executive once told a group of us, "The customer doesn't know what they want to buy, we have to tell them."

That works great when coming out with new, first in class products like the iPod or Airport.  Yet when you have a very functional operating system and hardware built using what I assume are industry standard Intel chips, then it may not be the best way to really make progress.

If you are only making incremental progress, you might want to pay attention to what your users want instead of trying to guess or to out hype the other vendor.

I am hoping that computer innovation isn't dead, but I wonder if Apple's corporate culture cannot come up with great ideas unless they come from Steve.  Apple is not a culture where being wrong is encouraged.  Nor is Apple a place where managers can be sure that they have the independence to completely control their projects.   The biggest complaints I heard from other Apple directors is that they had little authority in their own teams if Steve happened to be interested in what they were doing. 

Now having Steve do something wonderful with your project might be a good thing, but think of the last time you "helped" someone out of a computer jam.  Did you show them how to get out themselves the next time or did you just fix it and leave them dependent on you the next time?

Apple in essence is dependent on Steve.  Fortune magazine's, October 30 issue has the title, "What it takes to be great."  On page 176, in the article, "Five levels of excellence,"  Jerry Useem explains "Conscious Excellence" as the following.

..you use your conscious mind to descontruct and modulate the elements of your performance...

That also means you can explain it to others...

Based on my experience at Apple, Steve does not spend a lot of time trying to help others to understand how he hits his home runs.  In the end that could be Apple's downfall, and one of the reasons that this next year might be short on innovation in computers.

If Steve has lost interest in computers for the world of video and iPods, it might be hard to drag out the innovation that is needed to move the computer world forward, and I do believe that Apple for the most part has done the majority of the moving forward, and the rest of the industry has done most of the following. 

Beyond innovating it seems that Apple has its fair share of problems.  The article, "MacBook glitches test the faith of Apple fans," hits home to me since I've had what I consider more than my fair share of Apple problems over the last couple of years, including one of those discolored MacBooks and a PowerBook G4 with a dead ram slot and a screen hinge problem.

While Steve Jobs might occasionally drive a product to perfection, the MacBook is not one of them.  If Apple wants to continue to get premium prices for both their hardware and software, they are going to have to show customers more than just marketing hype.  I know that Apple can deliver the absolutely best products on earth when they put their mind (Steve's) to it, but you have to wonder where the company's focus is when your customers create sites like "Another Crashbook,"

For once I have to agree with Rob Enderle who was quoted in the MacBook article.

Veteran technology industry analyst Rob Enderle said Apple isn't paying enough attention to quality issues and customer relations right now.

"I think they are feeling invulnerable right now," Enderle said. "Because they've been so successful as of late, it looks like they can do no wrong and that customers will take whatever they give them.

"But that's the quickest way to stop a [growth] trend that I know of," he said.

Apple can deliver some phenomenal hardware and software in the next year, and I will be happy to be proved wrong.  I would like nothing more than to see fantastic innovation pour out of Apple once again this year. Being an addict I would figure out how to buy it.

Long term I continue to worry about Apple, since most of the world isn't filled with Apple addicts. It is populated with people who just want to get their computer work done, and they do not care how it happens.

At the same I am not sure I want to pay the tariff for another hyped Apple upgrade.  I can't be the only user questioning King Steve's operating system tax.

Those who might think that Apple charges less for their operating system than Microsoft does are just wrong.  Just calculate how much you have spent on Apple software upgrades over the last few years, and then with a straight face tell me Apple is cheaper than Microsoft when it come to operating systems.

My guess is that if I buy a computer next year, it will be one running Windows Vista Premium.  That will be the cheapest way to get Vista and some hardware which I will use to run both Windows and Linux. 

Yet we all know that I am easily seduced by Apple hardware, so I would really like to see something that comes from Apple with OS X and Vista Premium pre-installed for a reasonable (OEM) price. 

Stranger things have happened. 

Just maybe Apple & Microsoft won't be where we look for innovation.  If you want real innovation check out Backpack.  It's the coolest software that I have seen in ages. Of course it is web based, so the operating system doesn't matter. I wrote about my experiences with it in "Backpack, the absolute coolest software of the year."

Maybe it is time to speculate that Web 2.0 is the core of innovation once again.  Then again there is a  fair amount of innovation and software with all those all in one devices like the HP Photosmart C6180  that I recently purchased.  Wireless scanning, faxing, printing, and 4X6 photo prints all in one box which does not even need a computer is pretty impressive.  I read that Epson has one that also burns CD-ROMs.

On a more serious note if you want to see innovation in getting worthwhile things accomplished and to do something really important with the money you are planning for your next operating system upgrade that you might not even need, visit Joe Clark's website.  To me Joe is Mr. Accessibility.

Consider donating some money by PayPal to keep Joe afloat while he works on an accessibility project.  Joe has been one of the hardest working accessibility champions that I have ever had the pleasure to know.  He certainly hasn't got rich because of his passion to help others enjoy technology that we all take for granted but that hasn't stopped him.

Besides he does really great work.

 

Comments

There are several resellers that will install Windows for you:
http://www.expercom.com/product_detail.html?PRODUCT_ID=382444
http://www.tekserve.com/sales/products/windowsxp.html and others including macmall.com.

As for innovation, I suspect the Linux desktops will provide some now that they've reached near-equivalence with OS X and Windows. Wobbly windows is the start of eye candy, and Mono, Java (now GPLed) and Python on the desktop will make things interesting.

[ocracokewaves]

Actually I am not looking for technical help on installing Windows, I just want a cheap pre-installed Windows price like I get on a Dell.

I probably wouldn't get that from a reseller.

[Jon T]

1. I doubt very much Apple has delivered the mass of amzing things it has if it wasn't listening to customers.

2. The iPod and iTunes are turning more and more people previously stuck on Windows to Mac. Expect more of that, to the point that Mac is no longer a niche.

3. As Apple does not disclose its innovations ahead of time, unlike Ms who needs all the positive press it can get that mentions that word innovation, you can only expect Apple to continue its current path. ie loads of new products in 2007.

[ocracokewaves]

You've missed the point.

The Mac will continue to be a niche product with just more market share.

Microsoft also does a public beta which Apple might consider instead of having paying customers go through nightmares when they are first exposed to a dot zero Apple release.

I guess we will wait in see what the products are and if they are innovative

[pauldwaite]

I haven't even finished reading this post yet, but:

> "I had to wonder if John Dvorak might actually have wandered into one coherent thought"

RUN, RUN, THE APOCALYPSE IS NIGH!

[milevin]

If Apple listend to their customers, then we would have a laptop that is truly portable.

Every time I think about switching to Windows, Windows crashes to remind me why I like the Macintosh OS.

[dnulu]

What is your definition of innovation? This has got to be the most incoherent post you have made. You talk about so many things unrelated to innovation (unless all of those unrelated things are part of your definition of innovation)!

Innovation is the introduction of something new, such as wireless connectivity or a product such as the iMac with USB and no floppy. The ability to sync your cell phone with your Apple address book was a great innovation. The fact that you could store your music on a computer and sync it with a device like the iPod was an innovation as was iPhoto.

Apple has been the most innovative computer company in the world.

Yet innovation to be useful has to relate to the needs and wants of customers. Breakthrough innovations are often something that customers haven't even thought about needing, but fall in love with once they see them. The graphical user interface on the Mac and printing to a LaserWriter with PageMaker are great examples of that.

In any product life cycle you sometimes get beyond true innovation to the bells and whistles phase of the product. My question is are we at that point with operating systems? I am not sure.

If we are that point, then I believe Apple would better serve its customers by focusing on making everything work flawlessly. They could also listen more closely to customer needs instead of inventing things which might look innovative but actually turn out as something that is rarely used and in effect ends up not really advancing computing.

In effect those things become an adornment instead of a valued feature. Each person has their own threshold for deciding what has utility and what doesn't. What is innovative to me, might be old hat to you.

Some markets get to the point where reliability, customer, service, and a close adherence to customer wants are much more important than needless or questonable innovation. Would you rather have innovative voice commands that rarely work or an operating systems that never crashes.

A good example of a market that sometimes swings away from innovation is the Japanese luxury car market. There in the early stages companies differentiated themselves from other cars most often by quality and reliability. They only focused on innovation when it was true innovation. Service is now a key part of that market, with a customer survey after every oil change.

As I look at operating systems and listen to other computer users, what I see and hear is a need for a near flawless operating system.

It doesn't have to promise the moon, it just has to work really, really well.

Safari was supposed to be innovative browser at one time. As far as I am concerned no amount of innovation will make up for Safari's inability to work right on many sites. Being the user, I don't really care that it might be the designer's fault, I just want it fixed.

Steve Jobs is an innovator, probably the greatest gift that he could provide to Apple, its users and shareholders is to teach other Apple employees his mental process for innovation.

It boils down to either really innovate or get very, very good at what you are incrementally improving. Making those incremental improvements is done best by working closely with customers, not one of Apple strong suits.

We'll see which direction Apple chooses once the marketing hype dissipates.

Then again maybe my comment makes more sense than the post.

http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/david_sobotta_weblog/2006/11/not_each_post_i.html

[Anthony Dee]

You paint a picture of elitism, and a tendency to arrogance in Apple, which I don't doubt. For me, the main two ways this manifests itself are:

a) the 'Rev A' hardware experience...never buy a Mac when it's first released...if I know that, Apple know that...

b) the stubborn refusal to allow the wishes of some users (two button mouse?) for a ridiculously long time, for no reason other than stubborness.

However, I think:

a) Apple has made the most customisable hardware/software platform available, now it is based on Intel chips.

I think you're confusing unfair pricing differentials applied by Microsoft with 'cheapness of the PC platform': just because Microsoft make it not worth your while to buy Windows outside of buying a PC, then that doesn't mean it's because PCs are inherently cheaper. I bought a cheap copy of WindowsXP on eBay, and it was perfectly legal. I now run Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X all at once on my iMac.

In fact, several recent in-depth comparisons have shown that feature-by-feature, some Mac models are signficantly cheaper than PC hardware. (see PCMag's MacBook Pro review, for example).

b) The software groups do listen most attentively to what developers want, and from the developers comes the software, which after all is what it's all about. I mean, can you imagine Microsoft caring enought to release a version of X11 for Windows? In a way, I think this side of the Mac world doesn't really get the attention it deserves: all of the marketing led 'big features' in OS X aren't really the point.

I feel that Mac/OS X is the "innovators platform", in that it provides the widest set of options for the 'inventors' of software.

Of course it also locks people down somewhat to make cash out of them, but it just doesn't feel as 'dirty' as when Microsoft do it!