
Bill Joy on Sun's downfall, Microsoft's prospects, green tech (Q&A) - acangiano
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20005814-56.html
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10ren
> We had a touch-screen, Wi-Fi handheld device that we showed in 1995. That
> was a decade early. By the time it was time to do the iPhone, we didn't have
> any business anywhere near the handheld devices.

Unfortunately, engineering needs customers. Sales. Not just for money, but for
reality checks, feedback and encouragement.

Bill also talks about "believing in" products, and I think he means for
management, and especially marketing, to believe in it (assuming engineering
already does).

Clayton has this great idea of spinning off these types of products in
entirely separate and autonomous business units (aka startups). This is
because those little guys can get _really_ excited about $100,000 worth of
sales, whereas it's (literally) a rounding error for megacorps. This enables
the business unit to get started _even with near-zero market_.

Another facet is that if you have a small number of people, it's more possible
to select a subset of people who really do _believe in it_.

also: he's right that Sun had great consumer products - like Java applets -
but only in terms of hard engineering, not in terms of usability or the user-
experience. Not exactly marketing's fault.

------
keltex
"I think if you wound the clock back, I'd like to think that we invented stuff
in engineering that could have been marketed better,"

Unfortunately, this is completely backward. You create products that customers
WANT not try to sell customers stuff your engineers invent.

~~~
DaniFong
Or, you can make something for your own amusement like Steve Wozniak, and
spend the next two decades helping the entire planet come around to
discovering how useful it is.

Minds take time to change.

