Innovation vs Beautification

Who is playing a more important role in cruel competition of any industry in the 21st century, innovation or beautification? I bet, most of you would say, "of course, innovation." It is a right answer in most cases. But here , I will argue beautification is as important as innovation.

(above: the world first Trinitron TV, Sony)

Let's take a look at Sony, and Samsum. Sony is still the most profitable giant in electric industry. People like Sony's products, more precisely, Sony's ideas in their products. To some extend, Sony changes the way we live, from walkman to minidisc recorder, from PlayStation to PSP, from Trinitron TV to recent OLED technology. Statistics show that Sony spends 60% revenue into exploring new technology. It is very safe to say, respecting intelligence and encouraging innovation are the key elements in Sony's culture. But if we look back to April 24, and 25, 2003, the share price of Sony decreased by 40%, due to the great loss in the first season in 2003, which is recognized as "Sony Shock" in stock history. What was worse, later, Sony announced 20,000 job cuts over three years, so as to trim costs. And now, the sale of Playstation 3 is not as good as Sony expected. As you can see, today Sony is facing lots of problems. (above: OLED technology, Sony allows you to fold your screen.)

How comes? It does not make any sense, like a smart straight-A student once got a C in his transcript. Let's hold the question for a while, and take a look at Samsung.

When Sony is in the trouble , Samsung, another electronic giant is waking up. Samsung rapidly graped the electronic market where Sony overlooked, such as TV sections. Now Samsung is the world biggest plasma TV producer. Samsung refrigerator is a famous brand in housewares. Leaving iPod aside, the market proportion of Samsung's MP3 is greater than that of Sony's MP3. Astonishingly, the chunk of money they put into brand-new technology is very tiny. I believe, it is only single digit percent number.

(right: Samsung adds a speaker to normal MP3 player. New technology? Not really, but really eye-catching!)

How comes? If you carefully look at Samsung's products, you will find they are very easy to use, very nice to fit your outfits, and price is relatively cheaper than Sony's. Study shows that Samsung saves money by transfering technology patents, rather than inventing new technology by himself, and spends more money into analysis on their customers' life style, and beautification of their products. Although Sony's stuffs look also very nice, Sony's taste is universal. Sony pays less attention on their local customers. If you go to browse some forums, like cnet.com, the feedbacks on Sony's goods actually are not always good--"not as smart as it looks like." "the MP3 is not very compatible with my system."...

(left: a beautiful device whose front side is a cellphone, the back is a MP3. New technology? Not really, but really cool!)

However, Apple is a good example of integration of both innovation and beautification. Under the leadership of Steven Jobs, 30% of revenue is re-invested in to new technology. Meanwhile, Apple also tries to trace people's taste, such as shrinking iPod shuffle's size, painting lovely white and black color on macbooks. The result is more and more PC person become Mac person.

All in all, innovation is still critical in today's competition. But if you over-emphasize the importance of new technology, going crazy for that. It's not a good sign.