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Are we living in the same world? > To debunk it, look around you at all the major players in tech who are hoarding cash like there is no tomorrow while doing i
by kats 6y ago
Are we living in the same world?
> To debunk it, look around you at all the major players in tech who are hoarding cash like there is no tomorrow while doing incremental improvements to products rather than building something interesting.
Putting billions of dollars into VR/AR? Facebook acquired Oculus for >2 billion, and the project had mixed success, and Facebook is still investing more but into AR instead. Microsoft has had two versions of their AR product that are bulky and expensive, and with few users. But the 2nd generation of hardware much improved over the 1st. Apple is rumored to be developing AR glasses as well.
How about self driving cars? Google is the only company with actual driverless cars on the roads. Many startups made big promises but so far have nothing publicly available. Other large companies like Ford had previously announced their intent to develop autonomous cars, but backed out, saying the challenge is too hard. This shows that a truly large company is needed to develop autonomous cars, because billions of dollars are required for a project that carries high risk.
> Once they’re big enough, innovation is close to impossible, and the self-preservation instinct kicks in. Again, you can see that in almost all BigTech players today.
What about Amazon? Nothing could be further from the truth. They keep expanding into entirely new markets. In AWS, IoT, multiple retail stores, online video, healthcare, and probably other industries I'm forgetting.
And what about Google Stadia and Xbox game streaming? Or Facebook Libra? Or all of Google's NLP research? Project Loon? Fuchsia? Go? These are fundamentally new r&d projects.
> Your phone manufacturer doesn’t care about invention as much as they care about you buying the next, slightly better model.
Gestures broadly at 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE, and 5G Phase 1. Constantly improving display technology like OLED and transparent displays and improved cameras.
- koluna 6y agoThe things you are describing are not even close to being the revenue drivers or “reasons for existence” for the companies you listed. As someone who worked at FB, there is nowhere CLOSE to the amount of funding that Oculus gets compared to other parts of the company. I would venture to say the same about MS - Hololens is nothing more than an experiment, that is not the funnel in which Microsoft is pouring its revenue from other parts of the business. I am not arguing that companies don’t innovate. I am, however, arguing that companies, once reached a certain size, are less and less incentivized to do so.
- kats 6y ago> I am, however, arguing that companies, once reached a certain size, are less and less incentivized to do so. Well, I am not sure I agree with that. Large companies can afford to take the risks. For medium-sized companies the same effort is much higher chance of going out of business. e.g. If a smaller company like Sonos announced development of an AR product I think that would be really surprising.
- koluna 6y agoClayton Christensen covered that in Innovators Dilemma. Large companies, on average, are very risk-averse.
- yellow_postit 6y agoMagic Leap comes to mind.
- kats 6y agoMagic Leap is a startup, I mean established mid-sized companies. The ones that are making money and steadily growing. For them taking a big risk can end the company. A startup is already expecting that they'll go out of business, and funding a startup is a big risk in general.
- pm90 6y agoSorry, where are you getting these views from? Every tech company I've worked at, or have talked to people who work at them, become incredibly risk averse to innovation as they grow. The only time they makes serious investments in innovation is when they buyout smaller companies that pose a risk to their business, or who have innovated and proven that their innovation might actually be useful. And the reason for those investments is more to protect their business rather than to foster innovation itself.