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I think there are plenty of companies that innovate like Apple, but none of them make hardware. You can make a great piece of software with just a few programm

I think there are plenty of companies that innovate like Apple, but none of them make hardware. You can make a great piece of software with just a few programmers. But making a great gadget requires so many different specialized services and such a large scale operation that it's impossible to get everyone drinking the same kool-aid. If DIY manufacturing ever takes off, that's when you will see Apple caliber products coming from other people (but you'll have to print them yourself).

andreyf 16y ago
Do you really think we'll live to having a DIY manufacturing unit that builds me an iPhone 4?
- asmithmd1 16y ago
  I think it is closer than you think. It won't be in your home but there will be shops like a Kinkos where you can send a design and pick-up any number of finished products. Check out these people who will turn a design into finished boards in just a few days: http://www.screamingcircuits.com/ http://www.screamingcircuits.com/ There are probably a dozen companies like them right now, I would guess it will be less than 5 years until there is one in every town.
  - andreyf 16y ago
    I think when you look at the details, there are a million things custom designed manufacturing processes do that general purpose manufacturing simply can't, so if it ever does happen, I hope it doesn't happen at the expense of taste.
mechanical_fish 16y ago
This is a fascinating hypothesis but I predict a big caveat: Much of Apple's quality derives from standardization. Everyone with an iPhone 4 has the same iPhone 4. You can design a case, a bicycle mount, a Twitter client or a learn-to-juggle app for the iPhone 4 and know that everyone will have the same experience. Consider the world of free software, for example, where we have DIY manufacturing. Everyone can write their own Drupal, Wordpress, or Rails. But the market is not moving toward such bespoke products. Quite the opposite: customers want something that is based on customizations -- as minor as possible -- of a standard product. Part of the problem, actually, is that you underestimate the effort of design. When you can turn a blueprint into hardware overnight, you'll still have to sweat over every line of that blueprint, and document it, and support it.
- extension 16y ago
  A standard design can be done by one person and printed by millions. That's the theory anyway. Perhaps a more realistic scenario is that cheap manufacturing tech reduces the barrier to entry enough that small startups can mass produce affordable gadgets, without contracting everything out.

andreyf 16y ago

Do you really think we'll live to having a DIY manufacturing unit that builds me an iPhone 4?

asmithmd1 16y ago
I think it is closer than you think. It won't be in your home but there will be shops like a Kinkos where you can send a design and pick-up any number of finished products. Check out these people who will turn a design into finished boards in just a few days: http://www.screamingcircuits.com/ http://www.screamingcircuits.com/ There are probably a dozen companies like them right now, I would guess it will be less than 5 years until there is one in every town.
- andreyf 16y ago
  I think when you look at the details, there are a million things custom designed manufacturing processes do that general purpose manufacturing simply can't, so if it ever does happen, I hope it doesn't happen at the expense of taste.

mechanical_fish 16y ago

This is a fascinating hypothesis but I predict a big caveat: Much of Apple's quality derives from standardization. Everyone with an iPhone 4 has the same iPhone 4. You can design a case, a bicycle mount, a Twitter client or a learn-to-juggle app for the iPhone 4 and know that everyone will have the same experience. Consider the world of free software, for example, where we have DIY manufacturing. Everyone can write their own Drupal, Wordpress, or Rails. But the market is not moving toward such bespoke products. Quite the opposite: customers want something that is based on customizations -- as minor as possible -- of a standard product. Part of the problem, actually, is that you underestimate the effort of design. When you can turn a blueprint into hardware overnight, you'll still have to sweat over every line of that blueprint, and document it, and support it.

extension 16y ago
A standard design can be done by one person and printed by millions. That's the theory anyway. Perhaps a more realistic scenario is that cheap manufacturing tech reduces the barrier to entry enough that small startups can mass produce affordable gadgets, without contracting everything out.