51 ms·

He means specifically that the product improves over time. For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time. On

He means specifically that the product improves over time. For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time. Once you buy it, there's zero expectation that the company continues to improve it. You have to buy a new version of the product to get and improvements the company produces

TeMPOraL 7y ago
As others said, that's mostly a description of a business model (rent vs. buy a product), not of whether the company is "tech" or not. It's true that this is correlated with being a tech company, because the insanity of subscription models didn't conquer the world of physical products just yet - but you can imagine non-tech cases. Cellphones on a contract "magically" improve their hardware every 2-3 years through being replaced[0]; I can imagine there exist long-term contracts for car fleets where the leasor replaces the leased inventory over time, etc. -- [0] - and replacement is fair; software also improves by replacement. Your old executable gets deleted and replaced by a new executable.
paggle 7y ago
Well back in the shrink wrap days you didn’t get improvements without buying a new version. And today you’re renting your software, and for any rental product you do expect that if you continue to rent it, it will eventually be improved/replaced (or you’ll just stop renting it).
paxys 7y ago
> For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time This is also true for a lot of software companies (boxed software, games, paid upgrades etc.) Not to mention that a lot of companies selling hardware should also qualify as tech. My big problem is that the author is concluding that tech = software = subscription-based SaaS.
- rosybox 7y ago
  I don't think of video game publishers and studios as tech companies. They're media companies. Is a film studio a tech company? Video game studios create products that requires actors, a score and runs credits.
  - piker 7y ago
    Is Intel a tech company? Your i7 this week is the same i7 you bought last week.
    - the-dude 7y ago
      Are you sure? Microcode updates.
      - nordsieck 7y ago
        > Microcode updates. Microcode updates do not add new features, they exclusively fix bugs.
    - llampx 7y ago
      After the mitigations, slightly slower. (sorry, couldn't resist)
  - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
    Pixar, Disney and many VFX studios like ILM are as much tech companies as they are studios. Most of their bleeding edge tech they used to make visuals quickly trickled down to mainstream PC, VR and digital camera user space.
nordsieck 7y ago
> He means specifically that the product improves over time. For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time. Once you buy it, there's zero expectation that the company continues to improve it. You have to buy a new version of the product to get and improvements the company produces Software installed locally that doesn't run "in the cloud" would qualify as not tech according to that definition. For the most part Windows 98 just got bug fixes, in the same way a car might get part recalls, until Win 2000/ME came out with new features.
- Iolaum 7y ago
  This is factored in the article. As you know, Windows have moved to a new model since then.
- pwinnski 7y ago
  Bug fixes are still improvements. Software installed locally may still receive updates.
jacobwilliamroy 7y ago
>Lamp >Car >Mattress Non tech? What? What? ... what? Excluding manufactured goods from tech just kind of broke my brain for a minute there. I guess "tech" and "technology" are different words now and I just have to accept that.
- wongarsu 7y ago
  These are technology, but "company producing technology" wouldn't be a useful definition of tech company because that's close to everyone. I have a feeling that most people would call Philips Hue a Tech product, and if that was Philips only product we would call them a Tech company. For what it's worth I don't think that's good and I prefer to call Slack a software company, Uber a taxi company and WeWork a real estate company.
- jpindar 7y ago
  Apparently they are different words now, at least in this context, and bear no relationship to each other besides etymology. Language evolves, I guess. I dislike this change, since it excludes all the radar systems, jet fighters, lasers and other high technology systems that I've worked on, but there's nothing I can do about it. Oh well.
ozim 7y ago
I don't see the difference, it is like you imply that with software or "tech" companies you don't pay for improvements. You get packaged software, you have to buy new version to get new features. You have SaaS solution, you have to pay subscription fee, so basically for monthly payments you pay for that months version.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

As others said, that's mostly a description of a business model (rent vs. buy a product), not of whether the company is "tech" or not. It's true that this is correlated with being a tech company, because the insanity of subscription models didn't conquer the world of physical products just yet - but you can imagine non-tech cases. Cellphones on a contract "magically" improve their hardware every 2-3 years through being replaced[0]; I can imagine there exist long-term contracts for car fleets where the leasor replaces the leased inventory over time, etc. -- [0] - and replacement is fair; software also improves by replacement. Your old executable gets deleted and replaced by a new executable.

paggle 7y ago

Well back in the shrink wrap days you didn’t get improvements without buying a new version. And today you’re renting your software, and for any rental product you do expect that if you continue to rent it, it will eventually be improved/replaced (or you’ll just stop renting it).

paxys 7y ago

> For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time This is also true for a lot of software companies (boxed software, games, paid upgrades etc.) Not to mention that a lot of companies selling hardware should also qualify as tech. My big problem is that the author is concluding that tech = software = subscription-based SaaS.

rosybox 7y ago
I don't think of video game publishers and studios as tech companies. They're media companies. Is a film studio a tech company? Video game studios create products that requires actors, a score and runs credits.
- piker 7y ago
  Is Intel a tech company? Your i7 this week is the same i7 you bought last week.
  - the-dude 7y ago
    Are you sure? Microcode updates.
    - nordsieck 7y ago
      > Microcode updates. Microcode updates do not add new features, they exclusively fix bugs.
  - llampx 7y ago
    After the mitigations, slightly slower. (sorry, couldn't resist)
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Pixar, Disney and many VFX studios like ILM are as much tech companies as they are studios. Most of their bleeding edge tech they used to make visuals quickly trickled down to mainstream PC, VR and digital camera user space.

nordsieck 7y ago

> He means specifically that the product improves over time. For non-tech companies, the product you buy (a lamp, a car, a mattress) doesn't improve over time. Once you buy it, there's zero expectation that the company continues to improve it. You have to buy a new version of the product to get and improvements the company produces Software installed locally that doesn't run "in the cloud" would qualify as not tech according to that definition. For the most part Windows 98 just got bug fixes, in the same way a car might get part recalls, until Win 2000/ME came out with new features.

Iolaum 7y ago
This is factored in the article. As you know, Windows have moved to a new model since then.
pwinnski 7y ago
Bug fixes are still improvements. Software installed locally may still receive updates.

jacobwilliamroy 7y ago

>Lamp >Car >Mattress Non tech? What? What? ... what? Excluding manufactured goods from tech just kind of broke my brain for a minute there. I guess "tech" and "technology" are different words now and I just have to accept that.

wongarsu 7y ago
These are technology, but "company producing technology" wouldn't be a useful definition of tech company because that's close to everyone. I have a feeling that most people would call Philips Hue a Tech product, and if that was Philips only product we would call them a Tech company. For what it's worth I don't think that's good and I prefer to call Slack a software company, Uber a taxi company and WeWork a real estate company.
jpindar 7y ago
Apparently they are different words now, at least in this context, and bear no relationship to each other besides etymology. Language evolves, I guess. I dislike this change, since it excludes all the radar systems, jet fighters, lasers and other high technology systems that I've worked on, but there's nothing I can do about it. Oh well.

ozim 7y ago

I don't see the difference, it is like you imply that with software or "tech" companies you don't pay for improvements. You get packaged software, you have to buy new version to get new features. You have SaaS solution, you have to pay subscription fee, so basically for monthly payments you pay for that months version.