“The way Robert Newhart II sees it, the only resource America has left to capitalize on is one the nation has been known for since its beginning — its power to innovate,” Cathy Carroll () writes for The Bend Bulletin (Bend, Oregon). “Innovation is America’s economic engine, but it’s sorely in need of a tuneup, according to Newhart, chief executive officer of the Oregon Innovation Center in Bend. He’s on a mission to create a national dialogue about innovation. When Apple Computer created the iPod, Nike created the waffle-soled running shoe, Microsoft launched Windows and NASA put a man on the moon, they clearly were innovating.”
MacDailyNews Take: Interesting, uh, hold on, what was that, again… What? What? What?! (in our best Sheila Broflovski voices). Sorry, we can’t let this revisionist history just flow on past, especially with the Apple reference right there in the same sentence. The only innovation Microsoft brought to Windows was copying as much of Apple’s Mac graphical user interface (albeit backwards and upside down in an attempt to avoid a lawsuit) as they could and getting away with it. Windows 95, arguably the first semi-usable version of Windows came eleven (11) years after Apple’s Mac OS debut in 1984. We’ll rewrite the sentence correctly now: “When Apple Computer created the Mac and the iPod, Nike created the waffle-soled running shoe, and NASA put a man on the moon, they clearly were innovating.” There, that’s much better.
Carroll continues, “Most companies and individuals don’t innovate, but anyone can learn how, Newhart said. He intends to spread that message to the world with a new film he created with Cliff Joyce of PureBlend New Media Design Group in Bend. ‘Free Radicals of Innovation’ includes interviews with more than 50 innovators — from musicians to scientists, inventors and software developers. It also includes methods on how to use creativity and savvy to accelerate solutions for businesses, communities and families.”
“A prime example of an innovator is Apple, with its iPod, because it’s changing the rules of the game Sony invented. It did that by innovating in what Newhart has outlined as the ‘six Ps’ of innovation: people, price, promotion, product, place and process,” Carroll writes.
MacDailyNews Take: With Windows, Microsoft was obviously following the “six P’s” of Microsoft innovation: plunder, pilfer, prevaricate, parrot, poach and profit.
Carroll continues, “The iPod is an example of innovation on those fronts because it changed the process of previewing, buying, organizing and listening to music. Its iTunes software makes it easy for people to organize and play music on their computers, assemble playlists and quickly transfer music to their iPods. It solved the music industry’s piracy problem by providing a new place, the online iTunes Music Store. There, it changed pricing, selling songs online for 99 cents each.”
Full article here.
Boy, this is entertaining, as I live in the town where this paper is produced. The folks there will get a kick out of this.
Hmmm I wonder why all the icons are on the left in Windows..
You know.. considering the vast majority of people on planet Earth are right handed..
Oh.. cuz they had to be different from OS X.. got it.. lawsuit averted.. BRILLIANT!
Everygood turn deserves another.. let’s put the ‘Apple Menu’ in the bottom left.. instead of the top..
Microsoft and innovate together on the same line? ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (ad infinitum)
Let it go. We see all sorts of features that seem like “innovation” but is just rehashed or improved. Dashboard, iTunes, the finder, icons, etc… I haven’t seen anything different since system 1 or the first windows I touched-3.1.
There’s been many mp3 players they’re just doing it right. It’s still an mp3 player, just makes more sense when you’re trying to use it. If a help file isn’t necessary, you’re doing it right. =)
innovation:noun change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation, metamorphosis, breakthrough;
Again, I hit ctrl-cmd-d over the word. Wasn’t there an ie plugin that did that years ago? Apple just did it right.
That Microsoft Bob thing was a nice attempt that came before it’s time. They were really trying to do something different there. I wonder if they recycled that dog for XP’s search? Don’t get me wrong, I love tiger. I waste so much time screwing around over my morning coffee. Once I get down to work, I find these things useful and fun. I can only hope that there can be even more competition so the rush to innovate becomes even more heated in the years to come.
I get the feeling that Microsoft may yet reap what it has sowed…
Go Apple..the true innovators…
love the 6 p’s!
Microsoft puts the no in innovation!
I’m a die Hard Apple freak, and never like M$. They always copied ideas from Apple. But one thing I must admit that there is one device they innovate, and Apple copied later. And that device is ‘digital optical mouse’. Do you guys agree?
Come on everyone, MS has done all sorts of innovation. Just to list a few:
– Doors-wide-open security. All sorts of viruses, spyware, email bombs, script kiddies, etc etc have Redmond to thank.
– Bloatware. So what if the current version does it all, just add SOMETHING to keep the upgrade cash rolling in.
– Boldfaced theft, underworld tactics. Where did DOS and Explorer come from again?
– DLLs and Plug-and-Play. Enough said.
– The serial empty promise. Even NASA holds to their mission plans and launch schedules better. So when IS Longhorn currently due out?
– A talking paperclip. These guys gotta get outside more.
– As mentioned above, a start button to shut down. Brilliant.
Thankfully there’s an alternative to the above madness.
Loooong wait for ShortHorn,
Agilent Laboratories invented the optical mouse, not Microsoft.
http://www.fastcompany.com/fast50_02/people/rewards/gordon.html
In 1999, Agilent was spun off from Hewlett-Packard Company, a company that used to actually innovate way back when.
[Where did DOS and Explorer come from again?]
DOS was QDOS (Quick and Dirty OS) which was a crap CLONE of the better CP/M.
IE was Spyglass, then M$ gave it the touch of manure.
Fuck Microsoft. It was me! I did it all by myself. Now pay me again, you blind posers, and bow down to the greatest con artist of all time!
Rob, inventing and innovating are two different things. Apple saw a failing industry (mp3) and re-invented it by innovating. They saw the end-to-end solution was needed to truly make it work for people.
There is no other company in the world that can do what Apple has done and will continue to do with their forward-thinking leadership.
Paul Thurott, another paid Microsoft cheerleader, calls Apple “the great imitator – I mean innovator.” But even he periodically cannot conceal his misgivings about “Longyawn”
Good point coolfactor.