Engineering Driven vs. Community Driven (was Re: Ugliness)

Crane, Matthew mcrane03 at harris.com
Mon Apr 28 23:19:14 CEST 2008


It would detract from the argument to not speak to the points, so I will
not argue about experience.  You look only for a way to minimize my
argument.  
 
Your argument is similar to suggesting Nike has superior engineering
because they have the coolest shoes.  No doubt there is some engineering
at Nike wrt shoes but it aint that special in the grand scheme of
things.  It's about selling a minimal product with high margins, like
Apple.
 
If we take as a simplistic metric the number of inferences and resulting
complexity produced from work at the company required to go from the
drawing board to the product release, then the engineering that goes
into an iPhone is not really any more then most of the McWindows phones
out there.  A lot of design and art and marketing considerations mostly,
but that is not really engineering, and what's left is for the most part
just a cheap computer with off the shelf parts.  Parts that minimally
met the quality requirments, no doubt.
 
Matt
 
________________________________

From: community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org
[mailto:community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org] On Behalf Of hank williams
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 4:47 PM
To: List for Openmoko community discussion
Subject: Re: Engineering Driven vs. Community Driven (was Re: Ugliness)




On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 4:40 PM, Crane, Matthew <mcrane03 at harris.com>
wrote:


	Clever design != feat of engineering.   
	 
	Matt


again, unless you have "engineered" a "clever design" I don't think you
have much credibility on this. Executing appealing products from an
engineering perspective is incredibly hard. What experiences do you have
on this front which would suggest otherwise.
 


________________________________

	
	From: community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org
[mailto:community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org] On Behalf Of hank williams
	
	Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 4:26 PM 

	To: List for Openmoko community discussion
	Subject: Re: Engineering Driven vs. Community Driven (was Re:
Ugliness)
	



	On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 3:57 PM, Crane, Matthew
<mcrane03 at harris.com> wrote:
	

		There is nothing incredible about apple's electrical,
software, or mechanical engineering.  IMHO.. 
		 
		The marketing/buzz machine is incredible though. 


	I presume that you have never worked on a team that has built a
successful mainstream consumer product, because if you did, you
certainly would not be able to dismiss their success in this manner.
Making things that sell has very little to do with advertising. "hype"
does not just come from nowhere, as if from the heavens. If crappy
products could win based on good advertising, all that would be required
was money and clearly that is not nearly enough (see Microsoft Vista).
	
	The bottom line is that best selling tech gadgets, software, and
computers sell to primarily tech savvy people because they like them.
They like them, because the designers and developers have figured out
how to make broadly appealing products. That is hard. If you are
suggesting otherwise without actually having a resume that suggests you
have done so yourself, you really don't have much of an argument.
	
	Hank
	 


________________________________

		
		From: community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org
[mailto:community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org] On Behalf Of hank williams
		
		Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 1:52 PM 

		To: List for Openmoko community discussion
		Subject: Re: Engineering Driven vs. Community Driven
(was Re: Ugliness)
		



			If this is primarily a developer platform, why
are there so many intense opinions about such superficial things as
color and marketing anyways?
			


		In today's world, there is *very* little daylight
between marketing and engineering. They are of a piece. The product
design, the feature set, and yes even the physical form factor are all
both engineering issues as well as marketing issues. Apple is a prime
example of this. The beauty of the design of their products is all about
marketing, but could not be achieved without incredible engineering on
the electrical, software, and mechanical engineering fronts. So I don't
think, particularly for a phone, you can separate these issues.
		
		Hank 
		

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		blog: whydoeseverythingsuck.com 

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