While Apple is busy launching its watches, the marketing debate rages on ( like a pre-game bantering).
Will they wear them? At what price point e.g. $10,000 and down… Do we have enough James Bond rejects to model those…
Way back when I was in college, the debate was about whether people are dispensable or indispensable. We got McNamara on one end of the spectrum (body counts – keep wasting ‘m) and Schumacher on the other (Small is beautiful – Economics as if people mattered). A twist to all this was when McNamara ended up as President of World Bank.
Now, the same debate seems to settle as: economics as if machines mattered (and people can be home-grown for body parts – Never Let Me Go).
That why we’ve got the Internet of Things, machines that won chess match; Mac Book got thinner (fast chips), while we got fatter (fast foods).
At the speed of thoughts, the “message” will have arrived before we can say “end of transmission”.
I had lunch at an antique coffee shop, where yesterday’s “machines” were on display: typewriters and telephone, recording/play back devices…
Those were casualties of what is now known as The Digital Revolution whose principal law is Moore’s Law.
Just capture seemingly random ones and zeros in the ethernet, then re-assemble them to make coherent sense.
Information is what mattered. Speed is essential. People? Obstacles (the same way we now view those antiquated wire line devices).
But when you ask the finance folks, where the money comes from, they would say “from the people” (who will buy the Apple watches).
Mark Cuban, whose 3 Billions came from Broadcast.com, thinks that today’s tech bubble is worse than in 2,000 (angel investors get no recourse and safety net).
Still, today’s bullish NASDAQ came about by the people, despite two major wars and one huge financial crisis in between. It shows how resilient people are. People who once were thought of as obstacles, now opportunities – for Apple watch and Sony’s re-make ( Ghostbusters: who are you going to call? or to believe?).
In time of war, people (enemies) are obstacles. In peace, they are opportunities (new markets).
Thang Nguyen 555 