What's the deal with DCC?
#16
Gary S Wrote:
steinjr Wrote:Makes it hard to see much of a business case for developing, producing, marketing, selling and supporting universal throttles.
So much for the million dollar idea.
Sad

Oh, it's a Million-Dollar idea alright ... but someone has to spend a million bucks to develop the first Universal Throttle, manufacture and market it. And if it takes off, and he starts to recoup his million-dollar development investment, three other guys will buy one of his, analyze the circuitry, make a couple big enough changes to skirt his patent, invest $500 and make competng ones. Confusedhock:

So goes business! No good idea goes unpunished!

When I worked for Sperry Corporation in the '80's, and would come up with a really cool idea, like an ergonomic, angled QWERTY keyboard, I was tagged a fool and admonished for proposing such a ridiculous idea and wasting the time of all the corporate officers (CEO, CFO, COO, and a gaggle of VP's) I had invited to the Industrial Design Conference Room. I had done so to present this "Grand Idea" that would cut down on the number of carpal tunnel lawsuits the company had to defend against, thereby saving huge sums of money ... I was told, "If the concept had any merit, IBM would have done it and we would be following suit!" Icon_lol I almost lost my job! I got a very poor annual review ... and no raise ... as punishment! Curse

Two years later, Apple did it, won all kinds of design awards and the idea was considered "Brilliant!" Wallbang Wallbang Wallbang

Ground-breaking innovation is never well-received until after it's wildly accepted by the buying public!

Let us not forget "Fulton's Folly!"
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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#17
P5se Camelback Wrote:Ground-breaking innovation is never well-received until after it's wildly accepted by the buying public!

Good point. Innovation does take someone willing to ignore conventional wisdom and have enough faith in their new idea to say "damn the torpedoes - full speed ahead".

Some of these people will create markets where no market existed before and makes piles of money. But most will fall flat on their face, spending a lot of their time and money on developing their idea, only to see it not take off. And some will have the right idea, but be unfortunate with their timing.

Lady Luck can (like most ladies) be hard to predict sometimes :-)

By all means - try to develop a multi-system universal wireless DCC throttle. It is a worthwhile idea. I am just not sure that it is quite as easy to do as it would be to develop yet another universal remote for stereos and TVs.

Smile,
Stein
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