Eric Adams suggests that if GM, Ford, etc. were like Apple, cars would get 75 miles to the gallon. He's forgotten that Apple is a niche player in the tech market; Microsoft is more like a GM equivalent, and there are niche players in the auto market making cars that get 75 MPG, but most people don't pay half the attention to them that the do to Apple. Why? I think it says something important about the different nature of the two markets, and why the Apple model is not universally applicable.

Holy cow, what a load of crap. If you mean innovation in bloviation, hype and promotion then you got it right. Apple may be designed to be the cutest thing out there but the bottom line doesn't deliver, especially the ipod and now the insanely over rated phone. Ipod is geat, so long as you love apple bought music and format. Iphone super, so long as you don't actually need to make a call.

...and industrial economics is NOT what you know. We can tell that, not just from your (considerable) resume, but from your prescriptions in energy. It's ok to be green and I sure hope all the economy can go that way, but your not going to get green solutions from ignorance of market forces. And, yes, to the poster who talked about niche players influencing the market: That is the ONLY way paragims shift as radically as we'd like in renewable energy. It will not happen from the top down and it will not happen if Exxon et al lose their shirts chasing after wind power etc., which are FAR more unreliable and expensive solutions than drilling in the ground.