B-b-b-bill the Innovator

By: Dr Conrad Gempf

If the Department of Justice rules against him and his company, they will be stifling innovation!

Now, for most of us ordinary people, innovation comes hard. But not for B-b-b-bill. Starting with the DOS kind of machine (although he didn't really *start* with DOS, but that's another story), command line interface and five-and-a-quarter inch floppies (ah... those were the days! floppies really were floppy!), B-b-b-bill saw a 1984 Macintosh, a different kind of machine. This machine used a mouse. This machine used an interface of overlapping windows. This machine had rigid little three-and-a-half inch disks. This machine came with sound and networking, and you could plug other things into it and they worked. Without anyone fussing with DIP switches. So B-b-b-bill innovated. And the result was the Windows PeeCee we all know and love: mouse, overlapping windows, 3 1/2 inch disks, multimedia with plug-n-play (sort of).

But was B-b-b-bill satisfied with that? Did he rest on his laurels? No way. He looked around and what did he see? Someone was making a great program and beginning to dominate their market. The program had a nautical-sounding name, Navigator. It provided a way to gather and view information on the World Wide Web. It had a cute little square icon thingie that let you know when it was busy, and some buttons to take you places. And the company who made it gave it away rather than selling it at first, and charged a little bit of money for it later. Great! What did B-b-b-bill do? What any innovator would do; he innovated! He bought or built a program to gather and view information on the World Wide Web, with some little buttons to take you places and a cute little square icon thingie that let you know when it was busy. And, here's the master stroke -- a real departure for B-b-b-bill, but hey, he's an innovator, right? -- B-b-b-bill decided that he would give this program away rather than selling it. Oh, and he gave it a nautical-sounding name, Explorer.

But was B-b-b-bill satisfied with that? Was he willing to stop there and stagnate with his millions? No way! He looked around and what did he see? Someone else was making a great product and beginning to dominate their market. This device was grey, about the size of a wallet, had a touch sensitive screen that you could write on with a stylus, and held a datebook, an address database and could take notes. All of this software and data could be synchronized with a desktop computer really easily. It was made by a company called Palm: a Palm Pilot. Now any ordinary innovator might have felt a bit jealous that someone else had thought up this device first, might have been intimidated, but not our B-b-b-bill! He did what he does best; he innovated. And now you can see ads in fine magazines everywhere (cf. *WiReD* June 1998, pp. 20-21; www.microsoft.com/windowsce/palmpc) for his latest master stroke: a grey device with a stylus-sensitive screen that synchs its datebook and address data with desktop computers really easily. And all this in a package about the size ... well, let's face it, pretty much exactly the size and shape of a Palm Pilot. B-b-b-bill calls it the Palm PC.

And what a poor world it would be if there were no B-b-b-bill to innovate. There would be lots of spreadsheets (but no Excel), lots of word processors (but no Word). We'd have easy-to-use multimedia computers that used mice, window-based interfaces and 3 1/4 inch disks (but no Windows97 now 98). We'd have world wide web browsers. We'd have grey devices about the size of wallets that synch with desktops. We'd have to use other flight simulators, too! What a bewilderingly different universe! It really makes you think, doesn't it?

It's the mark of an innovator to have vision and the courage to bring that vision into reality. Other innovators see things that never were and make them happen. But B-b-b-bill, as ever, is a bit different. He sees things that already are and somehow makes people buy his version instead. He has forever changed the way we view the definition of the word 'innovation'.

Dr Conrad Gempf lectures in London and has had articles and product reviews published in such print magazines as *MacUser UK*, *MacTimes* and *Program Now*. He is webmaster of and regular contributor to the online webzine 'Pages for You' at http://www.londonbiblecollege.ac.uk

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February 09, 2010