Depressing Innovation.

So, yeah. It's been awhile.

I know what I said. "More posts, more often," I promised.

Well. Sorry.

I do have a job.

And a life.

And a family.

But I was thinking recently about the economy and consumer products. I work in a consumer electronics field, so I try to stay current with the new products that are coming out these days. New phones.

New GPS and PNDs.

New watches and new laptops.

New netbooks.

Smaller.

Faster.

Cheaper.

Better.

And this put into my mind the thought that perhaps the innovation of today's new electronics and technology products, the progression of a company's product lines, has been pushed further than the norm because of the scarcity of cash. Now, I don't have a degree in economics or business or marketing or production. In fact, I'm quite firmly grounded in earth sciences and happen to have migrated to my current position through chance and opportunity. I have, however, been noticing a trend that the new technology coming out seems to be out-pacing the previous pace of tech offerings.

Let me say it another way: Mercedes Benz, a company that has been known for putting out innovative design, is now putting out a car they claim is the "culmination of simply everything." We have phones that we touch what we want to open or the name of the person we want to call and the phone opens the program or it calls our business contact. I know they've been out for awhile, but today's are WWWAAAAYYYYYYY better than what we had 5 years ago. In fact, they're WWWAAAAYYYYYYY better than what we could choose from a year ago. Heck, in mid-October to November (speculated, I don't know for sure), RIM is gonna probably put out two phones that are head and shoulders above what they put out a year ago. And what they put out a year ago wasn't bad, but it wasn't all fully designed and finished (Storm 1...you know who you are; Bold...you did a pretty good job). But this year, RIM is putting out the Onyx 9700, a phone Boy Genius reports as "Gorgeous". What did they say abut the Bold? I don't know. I couldn't find a post. You look. I'm sure they gushed. ...or not. Like I said, I couldn't find a review of theirs. Anyway....

Now, the iPhone is pretty slick. It's cool in a gee-whiz kinda way, in my opinion. It does a lot of things really well and has done a lot of things really poorly. (We're not here to point fingers and name names.) But it seems that phones coming out in Q4 2009 are going to those things really well. And the things the iPhone did poorly? Well, they're promising to do those really well as well. Apple has really pushed innovation into the forefront, but their design seems to have stagnated a bit. Will the iPhone be better in it's next incarnation? Undoubtedly. But so will everyone else's.

Why is this? Why is everyone trying to squeeze out better and better designed phones and cars at a time where there is less and less consumer spending going on? Why are companies pumping out products with more tech in them and more design and more engineering and mopre power so they run longer, go farther, look better, run smoother at a time where the average person is still kind of iffy on season tickets to their kid's sports team? Is consumer spending really that tight? Again, I don't know, I didn't look, but everywhere you turn, you hear the talking heads on TV telling us that: "Yes, money is tight. Save money by buying this thing or doing this with the little money you have. God knows the banks don't know what to do with it...and just stay the heck away from the Market."

Well I'm not here to debate that either. What I am here to posit is this: This tech that's getting ready to drop, is because of the economy. Would you rather spend you $199 on a year old phone that does things pretty half-ass or would you rather spend it on a phone that has Bluetooth WiFi touchpad multi-touch GPS turn-by-turn navigation HD stereo surround sound call quality just like your mother used to make? Would you rather get the "regular Benz" or the one that has nan-technology fibers for seats and radar under the hood while it tells you that you should pull over to the next exit and get a cup of coffee at the gas station cause you're tired, but you don't need gas because it can go another 500 miles on that one tank?

Some of those claims may be wildly fabricated, but you get the idea that you'd rather, if you're in the market for one of these things (and even if you're not), get the better one for either the same price or cheaper. Why would they do that?

Because you only have so much money and you want the best perceived value for your dollar. And they want it.

Badly.

What's the best value? Obviously it's the one that's better. Better how? Better for who?

Who cares. You need to get a top-of-the-line, newest Blackberry on Verizon's network because then you can get another top-of-the-line, newest Blackberry (for another couple weeks at least) for free. They have the best network in the country. Or, go to AT&T and get an iPhone. They've got the best phones and the best 3G. And they're expanding it!

It's a fair trade: you get awesome tech and they get a piece of your ever-dwindling "disposable" or discretionary income. But why now?

Why all this awesome tech now? The Storm 2 is purported to be using piezo-tech in it's screen. That's pretty awesome, but nothing new. But it's still pretty awesome that RIM put technology that powers itself out there. I'd be surprised if you don't hear about that. Why does RIM throw this together now? Surely they've been working on it for awhile, but is this the right time to put it out in the marketplace?

The answer is YES, Dear God, Yes. Put it out there. We want our flying cars and rocket packs and brain implants that stream videos right into our glasses while we walk down the street.

It makes me wonder, though, is this all because of the economy and the shrinking wallet of the average person, or is it because we're in an expansion of technology. A technology boom in which technology will begin to begin to outpace itself and out-dates the technology that preceded it just months earlier?

Or is it a combination of both? Is it that tech companies are putting forth a greater effort to push newer tech out the door, even if it risks out-dating the recent product they put out and frustrating recent purchasers of said product, to get "the new, hot thing" out so they can be the first to get those shrinking dollars you have?

I like to think so. I'd like to think that because of this current crappy economy we have, whether real or imagined, technology makers are putting out better tech for cheaper in an effort to get my $299 for a Bold 9700 with a 2-year contract.

...and when they offer it, they'll probably get my $299 on a 2-year contract.

Because I NEED that phone.