Tim O'Reilly is reporting that Doug Field, the chief technology officer at Segway who heads their entire engineering team is leaving Segway to become a VP of product design at Apple.
Both of these companies are poster-boys for a the importance of design in the technology industry of the 21st century. It's not surprising that the 20 year-old cellular industry is scrambling to, basically, copycat many of the iPhone's features. It's not surprising that the buzz around Segway led to a revival of the scooter industry (while everyone envies those Segway drivers).
Is this a revival of the Product Concept? I don't think so. It's not that businesses are ignoring the market's needs. On the contrary, they are embracing an unmet need for better quality and usability. It's the other vendors, be it cellphone manufacturers or OS writers, who are locked into their products' ways of thinking. The technology industry is full of Corollas - but there is a market for Lexuses. (And If Toyota can do both then so can Microsoft.)
Comments