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I think that's the point. The Japanese are great at making a product better, but not very good at innovating an existing product. They may have made a music pla
by thasmin 17y ago
I think that's the point. The Japanese are great at making a product better, but not very good at innovating an existing product. They may have made a music player that has the same specs as the iPod years earlier, but they never would have made the mainstream version.
- patio11 17y agoGah, my blood pressure. The year is 1978. Microsoft is selling BASIC interpreters. Apple exists in a garage. A Japanese company creates this quirky little tape deck with headphones which -- get this -- you're supposed to actually carry with you, so you can listen to music while not at home. Hilariously stupid idea, right? The Walkman will be lucky to sell a thousand units, to say nothing of crossing over to the mainstream. The Japanese should just stick with what they're good at -- perfecting things made by white people.
- Xichekolas 17y agoOther fun Japanese inventions (culling from Wikipedia): The Biplane Graphing Calculator Solar powered calculator Camcorder Digital Camera Blue lasers VCRs Anything made by Nintendo Flash memory Various types of steel Quartz wristwatch The continuously variable transmission Yep, nothing innovative or new there.
- Kadin 17y agoUm, no. I think the point is that the Japanese electronics manufacturers were (and are) very good at producing standalone devices, but missed the boat on devices (like the iPod) which get their power from their tight integration with the PC. The standalone-device model works really well for some applications (e.g. digital cameras; you wouldn't want to have an iPod-style camera that you had to tether to a specific computer to get your photos out -- you want one where you can just swap cards like disks and keep shooting), but less well for others.