Over the last few weeks both Google (see Nexus Tablet and Nexus Q) and Microsoft (see Surface) have announced major hardware initiatives. In both cases, these hardware initiatives have been primarily focused on the mobile/tablet ecosystem. Even Microsoft’s recent software announcement – Microsoft SmartGlass – is targeting the growing tablet ecosystem. Both companies are taking a more hands-on approach to the growing tablet ecosystem as they seek to more closely integrate their software strategy with a hardware component. These moves are partly in the hopes that a hardware component will spur software demand and help buoy their entire platforms respectively.
Much has been written about the “death” of Microsoft’s Kin (see: here, here, and here). The focus of these analyses has centered on what might have gone wrong. I’d like to focus on something slightly different. In the death of the Kin phone I think we see something that has greater implications for technology innovation. Namely, the rate of innovation is accelerating and this puts increasing pressure on products at the intersection of success and time.
Let’s first step back in time a few years. The year is 2004. In the fourth quarter of that year, Motorola introduces the RAZR. By July 2006 it will sell over 50 million units. The Motorola RAZR would go on to sell over 110 million units before things where said and done four years after the initial launch. This record makes the RAZR one of the most successful consumer electronics products of all times and the most sold mobile phone ever (a record it still holds)….