The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#2That was a great article - highlighting everything that was wrong with Segway. I'm totally ordering the book, kind of hidden away at the bottom - http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/...
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#3I understand what they're talking about, but I don't get it - what makes it look so horribly geeky and dorky?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Segway_Polizei_4.jpg
Can someone elucidate?
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#4I understand what they're talking about, but I don't get it - what makes it look so horribly geeky and dorky? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Segway_Polizei_4.jpg Can someone elucidate?
That's what I said to myself about HP, Dell, Lenovo until I bought a MBP (Macbook Pro).
It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#5That was a great article - highlighting everything that was wrong with Segway. I'm totally ordering the book, kind of hidden away at the bottom - http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/...
everything that was wrong
I don't think that's true. The real problems were:
1) It looked like a medical device--something for cripples.
2) It pretended to be a replacement for cars, but was in fact a replacement for walking and bicycling--both of which are superior and cheaper to scooting around. That miscalculation was why they thought it was "revolutionary".
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#6I understand what they're talking about, but I don't get it - what makes it look so horribly geeky and dorky? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Segway_Polizei_4.jpg Can someone elucidate?
That's what I said to myself about HP, Dell, Lenovo until I bought a MBP (Macbook Pro). It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
Regardless of how the thing is skinned, the person using it is still a foot too tall, wearing a helmet and gliding around like the nun from Blues Brothers. The operation of these things looks infinitely more unusual than the device itself.
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#7I understand what they're talking about, but I don't get it - what makes it look so horribly geeky and dorky? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Segway_Polizei_4.jpg Can someone elucidate?
That's what I said to myself about HP, Dell, Lenovo until I bought a MBP (Macbook Pro). It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
> It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
The obvious exception being people who create things like the iPod or MBP :-)
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#8I understand what they're talking about, but I don't get it - what makes it look so horribly geeky and dorky? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Segway_Polizei_4.jpg Can someone elucidate?
That's what I said to myself about HP, Dell, Lenovo until I bought a MBP (Macbook Pro). It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
That's why when you get someone like Steve Jobs to give you advice, whether you like it or not you listen to it without being defensive. It's very tough to do (from customers and potentials too); it's easy to say to your self, "well, they just don't get it." But that's foolish.
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what I said to myself about HP, Dell, Lenovo until I bought a MBP (Macbook Pro). It's tough to imagine 'what it could be' unless you actually see it.
Regardless of how the thing is skinned, the person using it is still a foot too tall, wearing a helmet and gliding around like the nun from Blues Brothers. The operation of these things looks infinitely more unusual than the device itself.
Good points. To clarify what I meant - I get that it looks geeky, but I can't put my finger on what one would do about it.
Is this something fixable?
Re: The story behind Dean Kamen's combustive meeting with Steve Jobs
#10I read the book about a year ago and con recommend it. It is an interesting insight into how a macho engineering organization works and operate. The Jobs incident is somewhat misleading. The organization and Kamen himself wanted as little interface with the financial backers as they could get away with.