| Author | Message | ||
| John (Cohiba_man)
Junior Member Username: Cohiba_man Post Number: 186 Registered: 1-2003 |
Like I've said, Im not bitter that they came out with it, I dont feel like I've missed an opportunity because I was never going to implement it in the first place, I just think its a coincedence. | ||
| Rob Lay (Rob328gts)
Board Administrator Username: Rob328gts Post Number: 5418 Registered: 12-2000 |
You know how many people I've met in my life that invented a way for Emergency vehicles to switch the stop lights? At least 5-6 in three different states and I think a user on here even said that. With billons of people in this world, a unique idea may have only come from a hundred people. It's who takes action and implements or patents. If there's a need, people will think of a solution many times over. | ||
| Tim N (Timn88)
Advanced Member Username: Timn88 Post Number: 3200 Registered: 6-2001 |
They make the money on providing the internet service, not selling the computer. | ||
| PeterS (Peters)
Member Username: Peters Post Number: 975 Registered: 1-2003 |
For many products, time to market and filling the supply chain may be better than the time and money it takes to get a patent going. If you can build a product cheap enough (I mean money wise, not quality) and get it in the market fast, it is a wise move. | ||
| Sean F (Agracer)
Junior Member Username: Agracer Post Number: 244 Registered: 2-2003 |
Doody and Mike speak the truth. I'm trying to develop something right now and it's a •••••. Sort of stalled right now until we get our funding, but it's not easy for sure. | ||
| Mike B (Srt_mike)
Member Username: Srt_mike Post Number: 262 Registered: 12-2002 |
Doody is a wise man. Truer words have never been spoken. I was burned on IP once. I developed a product, it sold like hotcakes.. we made alot of money. Then, someone ELSE patented it. I was surprised! WE had started developing it before the patentee did, but the way the USPTO works means you CAN patent something that someone else invented, and we got burned by it. Luckily it happened as we were phasing out that product anyway, so it didn't hurt us much in terms of dollars, but it was a wakeup call. But I digress. Doody is 100% smack dab on with his comments. Ideas are like a-holes - everyone has them  . Taking an idea, and DOING something with it, is the trick. There are books on "how to turn your idea into millions", but really, that doesn't happen... because ideas are commodities. A company like 3M could make money selling the same glue as Elmers does, simply because they have the marketing and distribution muscle. It wouldn't be a new or innovative product, it would just sell because they can make it sell. Starting out with zero distribution, zero sales channels, zero manufacturing connections, and basically starting at nothing is VERY hard to do. Having the idea is the easy part! | ||
| John A. Suarez (Futureowner)
Member Username: Futureowner Post Number: 740 Registered: 3-2002 |
Robin is right, WebTV has been around since AOL 2.0 | ||
| Mr. Doody (Doody)
Intermediate Member Username: Doody Post Number: 1293 Registered: 11-2001 |
MY idea is now... i don't mean to sound like a ••••, but product and business "ideas" are basically worthless commodities. with some tiny exceptions, the only thing any market really values is an ability to execute. EVERYBODY has "ideas". very few people (apparently) have the ability to bring something from idea to market to profits. there are 6.3 billion people on the planet. it's not unfair to assume that at least 1% of them are genetically sharper than you. that means there are 63M people as sharp or sharper than you. assume three quarters of them are in third world countries or live in non-capitalistic nations. that leaves 16M folks. assume half of them are too young. that's roughly 8M people on the planet capable of coming up with ideas similar to or better than your "ideas" - assuming you're at the 99th percentile of sharpness. virtually every major invention was invented simultaneously by or unbeknownst to someone else who invented it independently. don't worry about ideas. anybody can write up a playbook and hire some big guys. worry about getting the football across the goal line. doody. | ||
| PeterS (Peters)
Member Username: Peters Post Number: 963 Registered: 1-2003 |
I almost learned the hard way that one needs to look at the USPTO website before they spend money on a product idea. I developed a magnet that fit into the garbage disposal to catch metal objects. Prior to making a decision for the material, I found the idea on the patent site. What a sinking feeling! I did get my patent though. At that time, the current patent for my idea used 12 magnetic ferrite pieces that were angled to form a circle. My design used a flexible rubber magnet. My patent lawyer got around the existing patent for me!....Another reason to get a good lawyer if you are in business. | ||
| Robin Overcash (Robin)
Junior Member Username: Robin Post Number: 120 Registered: 1-2003 |
This came out 5 or 6 years ago.. it was called WebTV back then. No one bought it....... -R | ||
| John (Cohiba_man)
Junior Member Username: Cohiba_man Post Number: 183 Registered: 1-2003 |
Hey, Peter, I don't actually think I could have pulled it off, it was just a coincedence to see this... | ||
| PeterS (Peters)
Member Username: Peters Post Number: 954 Registered: 1-2003 |
John...I remember your original post. I also believe I suggested that you check out possible pending patents at www.uspto.gov. Bummer that another company beat you to it! Keep thinking, you will hit one! OK Here's an idea I thought of today....Hell, I'll do a separate post on it! | ||
| IamA (Ski_bum)
New member Username: Ski_bum Post Number: 23 Registered: 12-2002 |
I worked for a fortune 500 company that tried to market a netPC. They engineered it in the next building, so I witnessed this debacle as they developed it. I knew right away the economics wouldn't work. Management had their heads buried up their u-know-what. Essentially a stripped down PC sold for the price of a decent no-name clone. I think they sold less than a thousand, recalled them all from the market. Lost millions. | ||
| Andrew Wanamaker (Androza)
New member Username: Androza Post Number: 24 Registered: 2-2003 |
Didnt something like that exist a while back already? | ||
| PSk (Psk)
Member Username: Psk Post Number: 588 Registered: 11-2002 |
I can think of hundreds of ideas my wife or I have had ... but never done anything about, only to see them happen in a couple of years. The hard part is making something out of an idea ... I think. Pete | ||
| John (Cohiba_man)
Junior Member Username: Cohiba_man Post Number: 181 Registered: 1-2003 |
Oh, I'm not saying I could have developed and sold it successfully, I definately couldn't have, but its just an intereting coincidence. | ||
| IamA (Ski_bum)
New member Username: Ski_bum Post Number: 22 Registered: 12-2002 |
I'm willing to bet that the margins on that are VERY slim, or non-existent. They are going to make their money off of MSN access fees, or retention of MSN when they upgrade to a real computer. | ||
| John (Cohiba_man)
Junior Member Username: Cohiba_man Post Number: 172 Registered: 1-2003 |
See this thread... http://www.ferrarichat.com/discus/messages/256121/256018.html?1053978839 I wanted to build a $99 computer that hooked up to a tv and ran ONLY the internet, made for people that don't need anything but internet on a computer... well... check this out, from MSN, a $99 computer that hooks up to a TV and runs only the internet, made for people that don't need anything but the internet on a computer... Notice any similarities ;) I honestly didn't know about this product before...its a very weird coincedence... http://www.msntv.com/Default.aspx |