Innovation or lack thereof

A friend of mine recently sent me a quote from an article at Technology Review. The article has since been pulled for whatever reason so I can't link to it. But the quote is as follows:

"People have a little more money but there's nothing they want to buy. There's nothing that makes you say, 'Wow." Ten years ago I was seeing something interesting every month, but now we're touting bloated software and cute case designs as innovation."

So what has happened to the pace of innovation to make that statement true? My friend that sent the article to me asked a very poignant question, "Is that truly because, as people like Fionrna say, the industry has matured, or is it because we're just not trying anymore?"

I think it's some of both. Technology grew at a very rapid pace in the 90's. I think this did contribute to achieving a kind of maturity in technology. But a lot of other things are at work right now as well.

There isn't as much investment capital available nowadays to fund new ventures in technology. So people are taking less risks in this area. And the really cool stuff is often somewhat of a stretch from the norm and can be considered a risky venture.

I believe also that a lot of the larger companies that were really pushing the envelope of technology several years ago have downsized and outsourced to the point where real innovation is nigh an impossibilty now. They're merely maintaining the status quo with nothing really to be said of innovation. Like the quote says - nothing new but cute case designs. Mediocrity seems to be the name of the day.

A lot of reports are showing that people have more money than in previous years. This is probably true. So why then are they not spending that money on new technology? Well the reasons I listed so far probably contribute to that. But I think also that although they have more money, they are more frugal with it than in the past. Maybe they were laid off for a while and learned to pinch pennies. Suppose they currently have a decent paying job but uncertainty about whether or not their job will remain or be outsourced or whatever keeps them from spending money on things like technology that aren't considered necessities. That and the Internet provides many tools to help find the absolute best deals on technology. Perhaps also contributing to this is the fact that the general populous has become more technology saavy. They can read about things they want online and buy the exact thing they need at the best price possible instead of driving to Best Buy and blindly buying whatever the sales guy suggests (along with whatever other things they find once inside the store). This "deal-finding" leads to more competition and lower profit margins for companies. Surely this has an effect on how these manufacturers invest their money and develop their products. Large investments in capital for little profit return aren't usually a good plan for business.

I think it's going to take some really exciting changes in the market to turn things around. Some really big innovations to revitalize the market. To bring people back into the stores. To make them decide they need to have some new tech gadget. To bring some profits back into the market and ultimately lead to newer innovations.