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If 5 companies all invest R&D in developing smartphones that fulfill essentially the same purpose, is 4/5ths of the R&D money wasted? I'd say not -- competition
by jjoonathan 10y ago
If 5 companies all invest R&D in developing smartphones that fulfill essentially the same purpose, is 4/5ths of the R&D money wasted? I'd say not -- competition decreases prices and increases quality. Even if it's "morally" redundant as compared to a world run by a benevolent supercomputer, it serves a concrete purpose with concrete benefits.
Similarly, if a tractor can prevent Joe from working a miserable low-skill job in a world where the supply of labor dramatically exceeds demand, it's a good investment for Joe. Even if it's "morally" just as redundant as the R&D dollars, it serves a concrete purpose with concrete benefits.
Of course, Joe would have to buy a great deal more than a tractor to realize this dream, not to mention that the fabled "tractor" which could actually free Joe from working harder than a minimum wage job doesn't exist yet, and probably bears little resemblance to the "car for farming" we've been talking about. Currently the cost of centralized production (the rent-seeking it enables) is small compared to the benefits. I don't think that's in question. I do think it's a function of manufacturing technology, though, and I don't think the scales are destined to forever tip the way they do now.
- ben_jones 10y agoAgreed. Take something relatively recent, water resistance in modern smart phones, had Samsung R&D not gone down that rabbit hole it would not be nearly as ubiquitous.
- tristor 10y agoTo be accurate, Sony did it first with their Xperia Z line.
- justneedto 10y agoMy Nokia 3310 survived the cloth washer twice. Fifteen years ago. It's battery also lasted for several weeks. This line of reasoning is amusingly similar to NIH-syndrome.
- agumonkey 10y agoIsn't that just luck ? more space between case and electronics, less sensitive components ? I was about to say the board was probably empty, but turns out it's not that simple http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-shGknjKjPWE/TzJGOwQLVcI/AAAAAAAAAEw/HImwHqMHg6I/s1600/NOKIA+3310-1.JPG http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-shGknjKjPWE/TzJGOwQLVcI/AAAAAAAAAE... Old phones weren't really resistant; but less sensitive. My Samsung Wave 723 took a plunge once, water got inside but almost didn't harm it (almost; something SMTc wasn't properly functioning after 1h of use). Kinda like ThinkPads, they can leak water outside a bit, but they're not water tight sealed.
- cmdrfred 10y agoUltimately, the research into waterproofing electronics no doubt began as some NASA or DOD project, as practically everything like that does.
- lostlogin 10y agoSamsung R&D has not always been strictly inhouse if judgement against are anything to go by.
- superuser2 10y agoIn general, the effort is not wasted if competition drives the products to be better and/or cheaper in the end. Uselessly duplicated efforts due to secrecy are the problem patents were supposed to solve, btw.
- bjelkeman-again 10y agoI think open source software was much more effective in solving the problem of duplication, albeit a slightly different problem (not as effective with hardware). As an aside, does anyone building software these days not have quite a lot of FOSS in their tech stack? Imagine if we had to pay for Windows NT 2011 to run our containers. :)
- kazagistar 10y ago> Imagine if we had to pay for Windows [...] to run our containers https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/ https://aws.amazon.com/windows/resources/licensing/