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"Cool," perhaps, but not even vaguely innovative. It doesn't change any business models, it doesn't bypass anything or make any real changes, it's just a big i

"Cool," perhaps, but not even vaguely innovative. It doesn't change any business models, it doesn't bypass anything or make any real changes, it's just a big iPhone (or, really, an iPod Touch). It hasn't "changed the computing industry." It's introduced a new line of the same products we had before. "Let's make a bigger one" was a really great idea, but it's not really in the same league.

cbr 13y ago
The Model S is "Cool", perhaps, but not even vaguely innovative. It doesn't change any business models, it doesn't bypass anything or make any real changes, it's just a new kind of car that doesn't use gas (really, a big golf cart). It won't "change the automotive industry." It's introducing a new line of the same products we had before. With the Model S you still have roads, parking, large upfront costs, a driver, and traffic. The only difference is fuel. Minor. (I'm all for the Model S, but I think you're putting much too high a standard on "innovative".)
- dublinben 13y ago
  That's not true. Tesla is significantly disrupting the archaic dealership model. They sell their cars directly, over the internet, and from corporate-owned showrooms.
  - dalke 13y ago
    In that case, the Apple Store significantly disrupted the archaic music and retail software product sales model.
    - ericd 13y ago
      They don't sell music and they don't sell much software... Do you mean iTunes and the Apple App store? In that case, yes, it really did.
      - dalke 13y ago
        Sorry, not much of a purchaser using Apple's services. To me the store to buy hardware, the store to by music, and the store to buy apps have the same password and are from the same company, so I think of them as the same.
    - goatforce5 13y ago
      Yes - they went from no music sales to the biggest retailer of music in the US in 5 or so years. That's pretty disruptive if you're a music retailer.
    - ams6110 13y ago
      How many record stores are still at your local mall?
  - jfb 13y ago
    They're trying to do this. I doubt they'll succeed.
- jchrisa 13y ago
  I'd rather have no cars than electric cars.
  - pkroll 13y ago
    Alright someone cover me: I'm going in... Why on earth would you say that?
    - ygra 13y ago
      Because it's rather inefficient moving two tons of stuff for (often enough) 80 kg of payload. I'd rather take well-functioning public transport than force everyone to own a car just to be able to go grocery shopping. It's wasteful, not only regarding the resources involved, but also for your own bank account. (Also everything the parent of that comment said. Plenty of places are horrible to use without a car even where the distances involved are easily walkable or cycleable. We increasingly tend to plan for cars first, people second which I personally would consider a dead end and rather short-sighted.)
      - wskinner 13y ago
        But this assumes "well-functioning public transport". In reality, this does not exist. Many, even most buses where I live are empty most of the time. Energy efficiency issues aside, cars provide something even more valuable: isolation and privacy from the disgusting and invasive sensory overload that is public transport.
        jchrisa 13y ago
        The car companies paid good money to make that happen http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_cons...
        Symmetry 13y ago
        Replacing street cars with public buses is hardly eliminating public transportation. Honestly, buses have so many advantages over electric streetcars that I wouldn't be surprised if this move prevented a lot of cities from scrapping their public transportation all together. Even countries that don't share the US's unfortunate emphasis on automobile transportation don't use streetcars anymore.
- zachgersh 13y ago
  So what is actually considered innovative in your opinion. I don't know about you but building charging infrastructure in addition to producing top class electric cars seems like a pretty big shift to me. Think about what happens if the car really catches on in China (somewhere that has a ton of vehicles and needs a more environmentally friendly solution). I think you are significantly underestimating the removal of gasoline from the car equation.
- opminion 13y ago
  The only difference is fuel. Minor. There is a world out there which is willing to go to great lengths in order to maintain an oil supply, and a main use of oil is for transportation.
- CamperBob2 13y ago
  It doesn't change any business models So how's life at RIM these days? You guys hiring?
- akandiah 13y ago
  It's a bit worrying that some people can't seem to see through what you've written.
protomyth 13y ago
Last 10 years for Apple: iPhone, iPad I would say the iPhone changed the industry. The iPad also changed the industry. A toddler might not be able to use and iPhone but they sure can use an iPad. That is a game changer not just a bigger iPhone. If I described Tesla the way you described and iPad, I would say "another electric car with better styling".
thematt 13y ago
What do you mean "hasn't changed any business models"? It has thrown Microsoft for a complete loop. Microsoft has restructured their product development to combat this erosion. Windows 8, Metro, the App Store, etc. are all direct responses to the iPad shifting people away from Redmond's desktop platform.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  These are plenty of business that exist solely be use of the iPad/iPhone market. Accessories and apps. And this is quite apart from those business that have been changed. I have watched a radiologist do a consult with someone using an iPad in a car park to view images. That is a change.
SeoxyS 13y ago
> It doesn't change any business models Tell that to all of the small businesses that have replaced their cash registers with iPads equipped with Square Register.
mattmanser 13y ago
People use iPads all the time now in situations they previously wouldn't have used a computing device. I know of plenty of companies that have bought one just to easily demo stuff or to be able to do stuff in the field that they wouldn't have done earlier. The iPad came out to wide acclaim because they got it right and showed it was possible. So many nay sayers saying even 6 months after release that it wouldn't be popular, it was a tiny market. It's very easy to reinvent history but I remember the crunchpad/joojoo coming out before the iPad, and it got panned everywhere even though many of us wanted a big screen iPhone. Let's make an electric car is on the same level of innovation as lets make a bigger iPhone. Both had already been thought of a decade before, both had already been tried before, both had already had failed entrants that made no money and it turns out they were actually both pretty large technical challenges to do it well enough that the consumers would actually buy the product. I would say they were in exactly the same league. And lets not forget that Apple had already single handedly created the portable computing market in the first place with the iPhone.
- nitrogen 13y ago
  What portable computing market, previously dominated by Palm, WinCE, etc. create, exactly?
  - mattmanser 13y ago
    Compare their total market value to the post-iPhone smartphone market and try saying that again with a straight face. And that's exactly the point I'm trying to make, perhaps badly! Before the iPhone or the iPad people knew there was a market there. But they claimed it was tiny and not worth entering or putting serious R&D into. So you ended up with hobbyist/yuppie toys. Say tomorrow someone unveils a 3D printer that does some essential household task and every house has one in 5 years time because you'd be crazy to not have an Initech Megamaker 3000! Were Initech the the first into the market? No! But they were the ones that turned it from a hobbyist thing into a real powerhouse multi-billion $$$ market. They single handedly grew the market by orders of magnitude, they saw the actual potential market. Whatever comparatively miniscule market there was before the iPhone is a reminder of how easy it is to think too small. Just look at the Android preview before the iPhone came out! It was utterly rubbish. Google were thinking small.

cbr 13y ago

The Model S is "Cool", perhaps, but not even vaguely innovative. It doesn't change any business models, it doesn't bypass anything or make any real changes, it's just a new kind of car that doesn't use gas (really, a big golf cart). It won't "change the automotive industry." It's introducing a new line of the same products we had before. With the Model S you still have roads, parking, large upfront costs, a driver, and traffic. The only difference is fuel. Minor. (I'm all for the Model S, but I think you're putting much too high a standard on "innovative".)

dublinben 13y ago
That's not true. Tesla is significantly disrupting the archaic dealership model. They sell their cars directly, over the internet, and from corporate-owned showrooms.
- dalke 13y ago
  In that case, the Apple Store significantly disrupted the archaic music and retail software product sales model.
  - ericd 13y ago
    They don't sell music and they don't sell much software... Do you mean iTunes and the Apple App store? In that case, yes, it really did.
    - dalke 13y ago
      Sorry, not much of a purchaser using Apple's services. To me the store to buy hardware, the store to by music, and the store to buy apps have the same password and are from the same company, so I think of them as the same.
  - goatforce5 13y ago
    Yes - they went from no music sales to the biggest retailer of music in the US in 5 or so years. That's pretty disruptive if you're a music retailer.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    How many record stores are still at your local mall?
- jfb 13y ago
  They're trying to do this. I doubt they'll succeed.
jchrisa 13y ago
I'd rather have no cars than electric cars.
- pkroll 13y ago
  Alright someone cover me: I'm going in... Why on earth would you say that?
  - ygra 13y ago
    Because it's rather inefficient moving two tons of stuff for (often enough) 80 kg of payload. I'd rather take well-functioning public transport than force everyone to own a car just to be able to go grocery shopping. It's wasteful, not only regarding the resources involved, but also for your own bank account. (Also everything the parent of that comment said. Plenty of places are horrible to use without a car even where the distances involved are easily walkable or cycleable. We increasingly tend to plan for cars first, people second which I personally would consider a dead end and rather short-sighted.)
    - wskinner 13y ago
      But this assumes "well-functioning public transport". In reality, this does not exist. Many, even most buses where I live are empty most of the time. Energy efficiency issues aside, cars provide something even more valuable: isolation and privacy from the disgusting and invasive sensory overload that is public transport.
      - jchrisa 13y ago
        The car companies paid good money to make that happen http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_cons...
        Symmetry 13y ago
        Replacing street cars with public buses is hardly eliminating public transportation. Honestly, buses have so many advantages over electric streetcars that I wouldn't be surprised if this move prevented a lot of cities from scrapping their public transportation all together. Even countries that don't share the US's unfortunate emphasis on automobile transportation don't use streetcars anymore.
zachgersh 13y ago
So what is actually considered innovative in your opinion. I don't know about you but building charging infrastructure in addition to producing top class electric cars seems like a pretty big shift to me. Think about what happens if the car really catches on in China (somewhere that has a ton of vehicles and needs a more environmentally friendly solution). I think you are significantly underestimating the removal of gasoline from the car equation.
opminion 13y ago
The only difference is fuel. Minor. There is a world out there which is willing to go to great lengths in order to maintain an oil supply, and a main use of oil is for transportation.
CamperBob2 13y ago
It doesn't change any business models So how's life at RIM these days? You guys hiring?
akandiah 13y ago
It's a bit worrying that some people can't seem to see through what you've written.

protomyth 13y ago

Last 10 years for Apple: iPhone, iPad I would say the iPhone changed the industry. The iPad also changed the industry. A toddler might not be able to use and iPhone but they sure can use an iPad. That is a game changer not just a bigger iPhone. If I described Tesla the way you described and iPad, I would say "another electric car with better styling".

thematt 13y ago

What do you mean "hasn't changed any business models"? It has thrown Microsoft for a complete loop. Microsoft has restructured their product development to combat this erosion. Windows 8, Metro, the App Store, etc. are all direct responses to the iPad shifting people away from Redmond's desktop platform.

lostlogin 13y ago
These are plenty of business that exist solely be use of the iPad/iPhone market. Accessories and apps. And this is quite apart from those business that have been changed. I have watched a radiologist do a consult with someone using an iPad in a car park to view images. That is a change.

SeoxyS 13y ago

> It doesn't change any business models Tell that to all of the small businesses that have replaced their cash registers with iPads equipped with Square Register.

mattmanser 13y ago

People use iPads all the time now in situations they previously wouldn't have used a computing device. I know of plenty of companies that have bought one just to easily demo stuff or to be able to do stuff in the field that they wouldn't have done earlier. The iPad came out to wide acclaim because they got it right and showed it was possible. So many nay sayers saying even 6 months after release that it wouldn't be popular, it was a tiny market. It's very easy to reinvent history but I remember the crunchpad/joojoo coming out before the iPad, and it got panned everywhere even though many of us wanted a big screen iPhone. Let's make an electric car is on the same level of innovation as lets make a bigger iPhone. Both had already been thought of a decade before, both had already been tried before, both had already had failed entrants that made no money and it turns out they were actually both pretty large technical challenges to do it well enough that the consumers would actually buy the product. I would say they were in exactly the same league. And lets not forget that Apple had already single handedly created the portable computing market in the first place with the iPhone.

nitrogen 13y ago
What portable computing market, previously dominated by Palm, WinCE, etc. create, exactly?
- mattmanser 13y ago
  Compare their total market value to the post-iPhone smartphone market and try saying that again with a straight face. And that's exactly the point I'm trying to make, perhaps badly! Before the iPhone or the iPad people knew there was a market there. But they claimed it was tiny and not worth entering or putting serious R&D into. So you ended up with hobbyist/yuppie toys. Say tomorrow someone unveils a 3D printer that does some essential household task and every house has one in 5 years time because you'd be crazy to not have an Initech Megamaker 3000! Were Initech the the first into the market? No! But they were the ones that turned it from a hobbyist thing into a real powerhouse multi-billion $$$ market. They single handedly grew the market by orders of magnitude, they saw the actual potential market. Whatever comparatively miniscule market there was before the iPhone is a reminder of how easy it is to think too small. Just look at the Android preview before the iPhone came out! It was utterly rubbish. Google were thinking small.