11–20 of 93 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely large companies should be capable of having some people that are innovating while others are focusing on competition?
Agree. I just don't really buy his "100% competitor focused" statement. Isn't Google X and moonshot projects serve as Google's innovation hub?
Remember when Tim Cook was criticised for not constantly bringing out new product lines? Yo don't hear that any more - people seem to have forgotten about the idea that Apple might be a company that actually comes up with entirely new product categories. Indeed Apple hardly even releases updates to its computers any more, and was savaged for that a year or two back, promised solemnly that it really does know how to release new computers, but for example the Mac Mini was last updated 4 years ago in 2014.
Amazon is certainly innovating in the cloud space. Sony is having a go with VR. What other examples are there of companies that remain innovative, not just reactionary?
Out in the startup world innovation seems to have declined - reviewing the next batch of startups from any incubator/early stage VC you're bound to see the same types of companies that are fixing insurance, delivering food to people and basically doing the same things over and over.
I feel like the real innovation happens on github but most of the projects don't bother trying to become businesses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely large companies should be capable of having some people that are innovating while others are focusing on competition?
Agree. I just don't really buy his "100% competitor focused" statement. Isn't Google X and moonshot projects serve as Google's innovation hub?
> becoming "100% competitor-focused" and said the company "can no longer innovate." I understand that from a nowadays developer perspective, innovation is held in high regard and rightfully so. However, NO ONE can innovate constantly and forever. A competition race such as the cloud pricing Google vs. Amazon he mentioned is actually a good thing for customers from a economic standpoint. At some point, all companies h…
There was recently an article on HN that claimed that the cost of starting a new business group at Amazon was amazingly low, and that the process was amazingly fast. Basically, you get the people together/get people hired, and you just start doing stuff. If that's true, then why couldn't Amazon manage to innovate forever? What's to prevent Jeff Bezos from getting together a pool of expertise comparable to that of YCombinator, and replicating the kind of ecosystem YCombinator managed to develop?
I question your assertion that, At some point, all companies have to slow down innovation and focus more on competitions
Surprised that a programmer quitting is covered by the financial press.
Steve Yegge is a widely respected programmer who is also a bit known for making big predictions about the future of tech and generally being (directionally) correct about them.
> becoming "100% competitor-focused" and said the company "can no longer innovate." I understand that from a nowadays developer perspective, innovation is held in high regard and rightfully so. However, NO ONE can innovate constantly and forever. A competition race such as the cloud pricing Google vs. Amazon he mentioned is actually a good thing for customers from a economic standpoint. At some point, all companies h…
Starting with uncovering and serving customer needs and desires is a great impetus for innovation. Following what the competition is doing and one-upping them is also a viable strategy but it also means you'll be one or more steps behind.
Still, I think some things like Google Home and Google Assistant are pretty innovative and perfect for utilizing Google's strengths. I think if they keep pushing along that nexus of mobile, ai, and natural language technology there's a lot of new territory they can capture.
On the other hand, I feel like Google is gonna have a tougher time fighting off Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud market. Google doesn't seem to be as good at serving enterprise customers [as MSFT and AMZN] and that's where a lot of the money is. Google also doesn't have much advantage, if any, in developer tools to entice people to use their platform over the others either.
Not to say that invalidates what he's saying or anything but it's a little humorous.
The question is, where IS the innovation? Which big companies are doing an impressive job of innovating? Remember when Tim Cook was criticised for not constantly bringing out new product lines? Yo don't hear that any more - people seem to have forgotten about the idea that Apple might be a company that actually comes up with entirely new product categories. Indeed Apple hardly even releases updates to its computers a…
But not to single out Apple- as you pointed out, many startups are doing the same thing over and over again. Guess this is the consolidation and make profits stage of the tech cycle.