Free Nonsense

TECHNOLOGY IS WORTHLESS

By Bruno Santos*

We live in a world where technology plays a major role. Many people assume that any technological breakthrough will be immediately accepted and welcomed by society. Sorry to disappoint you, but this is just not true. The groundbreaking project that you are working on may never leave the lab or, even if it does reach the market, it may not be adopted. I’m sure you know a couple of stories about fabulous technologies that unfortunately could never make it. I don’t know if you can remember that HD DVD was one of two formats for high definition DVDs, but you know for sure that the other format is Blu-ray.

You may think that if your technology is great and someone “gets it” you won’t have a problem and your idea will smoothly dominate the market. Sorry to disappoint you again. Segway, the two-wheel personal transportation vehicle, was an innovative idea which won numerous awards and received a $100 million investment for product development. However, disregard for pertinent issues, such as pricing strategy, led to a heavy blow in sales, reaching only 30,000 units from 2001 to 2007 against the predicted 40,000 in the first year.

It would be great if the technologies’ potential could be fully used by people. It would be great if the technology or project that you are working on could be used by people. Something has to be done with your technology to release its potential.

By now I hope that you all agree with me when I say that technology in itself is basically worthless. Even Intel learned it the hard way. Intel was the absolute market leader in the microchips industry for PCs with more than 70% market share. They were so focused on producing the most complex and technologically developed microchips that they didn’t give credit to AMD. This company was producing cheaper, less complex and powerful microchips which were perfectly suitable for the regular customer. In 2004, AMD surpassed INTEL in market share.

People don’t buy technology, people buy products or services based on what they allow them to do or experience. It would be great if all technology potential could be transformed into meaningful experiences that improve people’s lives. It would be great if one of those technologies would be yours.

This is what I want to do, improve people’s lives through experiences supported by the latest technologies.

As most youngsters I wanted to change the world and as an engineer I thought the best way would be to work in a large multinational. I worked for some years in a Technological centre and then I went to work for Infineon/Qimonda. I was a middle manager at a High Tech Multinational, what more could an engineer want? Well, as I said before, the goal was to change the world, and although the products on which I worked were used worldwide, I discovered I wanted to make a difference in a different way. I quit the company to do a full-time MBA where I met four amazing friends who shared the same dream. We created a company (Nonius Group) to make our dream come true and we are helping remarkable technologies to be available for everyone through wonderful experiences.

To bring technologies to the market through products I lacked the experience on technology creation and development, as this is mostly done at Universities and Research Institutions. Therefore, I felt the need to be close to the brightest scientists that shared the same mindset. So, I also took the opportunity to join the Innovation and Technology Transfer Unit (UITT) at INESC Porto, an interface organization between the academic world, the world of industry and services and the public administration. At UITT, we’ll be glad to help you give life to the technology you are working on. Come talk to us, we are on the first floor.

“Be the change you want to see in the world” - Mahatma Gandhi