Re: Grease and waxes

On Mon, 8 Jul 2024 13:52:56 -0400, Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On 7/8/2024 12:09 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

For a short time during the dot com era (1990's), I was doing research
on the viability of some of the more marginal amazing products being
proposed by startups for a venture capitalist.  The problem was that
most of the business plans covered everything except if the device was
going to work.  He was quite capable of evaluating the business plan,
but because he knew little about technology, he needed help.  My
instructions were to concentrate on the product and ignore the
business aspects.  I did quite well, with a good batting average until
I made a huge mistake.  The product turned out to be the Apple iPod.
There were previous portable media players (Diamond Rio), all of which
had technical problems.  I only saw only the problems and discounted
the possibilities.

>
apple was looking for venture capital for the Ipod project? I know they
weren't struggling a bit at the time but seems to me they would have
managed that NRE finanacing in-house.

Neither I or the venture capitalist were working for or with Apple.
Apple never even appeared in my research.  All I knew was that his
stealth company (probably a new startup) was considering making a
portable MP3/media player similar to the Diamond Multimedia Rio
player:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Audio>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300>
which had been leaked at some trade show in 1997 and appeared
promising.  I bought one and hated it.  It lasted about 3 months
before it literally fell apart:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300#Design_flaws>
For example, this was in the days of the Ghetto Blaster.  I just
couldn't see anyone walking down the street (or riding their bicycle)
wearing earphones. 

The Apple iPod was first released in 2001.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod>
I submitted my research in early 1999.  When the iPod was first
announced, it was a total surprise to me and probably everyone else.
The innovations were the iTunes store, the iTunes program (for both PC
and Mac), and the $1/tune pricing.  For hardware, the hard disk drive
in the iPod was a huge improvement over the limited storage provided
by internal flash memory or juggling 32MegaByte cards.  Nobody thought
that $1/tune was going to happen because of the then ongoing lawsuit
by the RIAA against Diamond over the Diamond Rio "copying" tunes.


--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558