From: Michael S. Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Thu Apr 22 1999 - 00:42:19 MDT
Yak Wax wrote:
>
> Jeff Fabijanic wrote:
>
> > Btw, the MIT Media Lab Wednesday
> > Colloquium today ("The invisible computer:
> > Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal
> > Computer Is So Complex, and Information
> > Appliances Are the Solution") features Don
> > Norman - the author of "The Design of
> > Everyday Things," "Turn Signals Are the
> > Facial Expressions of Automobiles" and
> > "Things That Make Us Smart".
>
> "Why Good Products can fail"? Okay, a good idea might make a bad
> product but a "good product" is one that hasn't failed (to sell).
>
On the contrary. I invented an electroluminescent retrofit kit for exit
signs, used 1/3 of a watt, and it lasts for 30 years at least, as well
as emitting a nice even illumination across the entire face, making the
letters of the sign very easy to read. We sold it for $65.00. We sold
six or eight thousand of these puppies, then got clobbered by the big
lighting companies that contracted Chinese manufacturers to make LED
based kits which looked terrible, were not as efficient as ours, but
were only half the price. My product won recognition as the most
efficient and cost effective lighting product invented (according to the
EPA's Green Lights Decision Support Software, 1995) and was written up
in the Washington Post as well as industry mags. It was a great product.
We got beaten in the market for reasons that had nothing to do with its
greatness as a product.
Mike Lorrey
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