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Windows - initially a poor shell over DOS
And DOS itself was bought in, it was originally 86-DOS.
It's a really good question actually, how many true innovations have come directly from the big names rather than being acquired from swallowed-up smaller companies and startups?
I suppose the iPhone really cemented the lozenge form factor of a touch-screen smartphone, and the iPad was probably more innovative in that it actually created a non-existent market with something that hadn't really been done before (outside of the PADDs in Star Trek: TNG anyway). But typically the big companies seem to be more about evolution rather than revolution.
Completely different tech. The Wii "sensor bar" is really just a few infrared LEDs that the controllers can see.
You can actually replace the sensor bar with a couple of tealights if you're not too concerned about absolute accuracy. It's the remotes that are clever, not the bar.
Completely different tech. The Wii "sensor bar" is really just a few infrared LEDs that the controllers can see.
I know but they took an idea someone else, improved it, but still someone else's idea.
Completely different tech
and completely different budget.
OK - I quite like these too [shame they're not that well made :/ ]
and that keyboard wasn't innovative - other people were doing those keyboards and other key layouts to address rsi. I am typing on one of these now :
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although flat on the desk.
Uh oh...
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that keyboard wasn't innovative
*shrug*
I just said I liked it.
Seriously, I'm outta here!
I know but they took an idea someone else, improved it, but still someone else's idea.
That's a stretch! Nintendo had a system for using light to detect where a controller was pointed at a screen. Really not much of an innovation beyond this:
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The Kinect instead used an infrared scanning laser and video camera, plus some very clever software analysis, to do near real-time full body 3D motion analysis for multiple simultaneous players without needing special controllers, as well as incorporating facial recognition and doing localised voice recognition with multiple directional microphones.
Doing that in a commercial product for the home was a proper innovation.
Where Apple have been innovative (IMO of course!) is the importance they give to the aesthetics and finish of the complete product.
MacOS X wasn't much better than the other offerings when it came out, but it really didn't have any rivals when it came to the aesthetics combined with build quality of the hardware that housed it. When it came to the iPhone, something similar: the whole experience was better than the alternatives. Android has caught up with the OS, but there aren't many phones that can rival the full iPhone experience - the Samsung 6, HTC One X and the Xperia Z spring to mind, but cheap Android phones feel just that: cheap. And that of course cheapens the brand.
Hahaha! I was waiting for you to post that Graham.
Anyone see that programme on the iPhone factory a couple of months back?
Sort of the point I made earlier, Apple talk the talk about greening up the supply chain but the reality* on the ground seemed fairly poor - slave labour digging oil wells with spades made out of Galapagos tortoise shells**.
* as presented by the programme.
** well, nearly.
Anyone see that programme on the iPhone factory a couple of months back?
I'm guessing you are talking about the Panorama programme "Apple's Broken Promises"?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30532463
That + the Foxconn scandals are undoubtedly part of Apple's motivation in publishing that Supplier Sustainability Report.
As part of that they made suppliers repay $3.96 million in "recruitment fees" taken from over 4,500 bonded workers and banned the practise in their suppliers.
http://www.besttechie.com/2015/02/12/apple-makes-ethics-improvements-to-its-supply-chain/
the reality* on the ground seemed fairly poor
But compared to what though?
The uncomfortable truth is that almost all our gadgets come from these same places, use the same cheap labour, extract from the same mines..
You could try a https://www.fairphone.com/ I suppose.
Three pages? Really?
MS and Apple play the same game, it just depends who gets to the post first.
MS tried to do tablets, Apple succeeded
Apple tried to take the PC market, MS succeeded
Who gives a toss really?
And FWIW, reports like that are token gestures trotted out only when someone gets caught. I wouldn't be surprised if the cliched phrase "lessons learned" features heavily in it.