In PC Magazine (Vol 26, No.16) I came across an interesting analogy between the computer industry and the automobile industry.
Written by John Dvorak, he had the following to say:
“The computer industry is often compared with the automobile industry, but it has missed the entire “concept car” idea. Every so often one company or another will design cool concept computers that can wow the crowd, but in general this is not the norm.
What I find weird is that creating a jazzy futuristic machine just to play with ideas is a lot cheaper to do with computers than with cars. A concept car can cost millions of dollars to design and build, yet it’s an institution in the auto industry. In the computer business, a concept machine is seldom promoted to the general public. The closest we come to institutionalizing such a notion are the case-mod designs that individuals build. The equivalent in the auto industry is the hot rod or the custom car business.
With these thoughts in mind, I looked over what Intel has been up to recently with a number of futuristic performance claims, all of which lacked the auto-industry pizzazz. Imagine going to one of the major car shows and, instead of seeing cool new cars, just getting to see the motors. Sigh.”
Dvorak’s insightful comments are a beautiful example of how an analogy between industries can lead to innovative ideas.
Something that is an “institution” in one industry (i.e., concept cars in the automobile industry) can be turned into an groundbreaking innovation when ported into a different industry (i.e., concept computers in the computer industry).