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Where Is the Tech Industry Headed?

After two weeks of being disconnected, I've come to realize that the tech industry is getting stale. Major players other than Apple must now step up and innovate.

July 2, 2012

First, I want to thank the many folks who offered me support after they found out through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media that I had a major heart attack that led to a triple bypass. So many of you sent get well notes and kept me in your thoughts and prayers. I greatly appreciated everything. The doctors told me I was 30 minutes from a major stroke and 60 minutes from losing half of my heart muscle. I am glad I listened to my body and went to the emergency room. That saved me. I am now in serious healing mode and am told I will be good as new by August.

One interesting outcome of this was that, for two weeks, I was completely disconnected. I suppose if you keep a guy on morphine, it's easy to keep him disconnected. So once I was switched to a regular room, the first thing I asked for was my and . It took me a week to catch up and when I got home, I devoured as much industry info as I needed to do my job.

Although a lot of news passed under the bridge, to be fair, I found nothing earth-shattering. Even more disappointing was the fact that all the products I perused from seemed the same. Most of what I saw was just some type of variation on the same theme. This was played out later in the week when . It also was a variation of things already done, albeit with its unique touches.

It seems to me that the industry is at a standstill. Where is the innovation going to come from? Where is the next iPad that will revolutionize personal computing? Where is the new user interface that will change how we interact with our computer? Where are the flexible screens that will transform the way we view things? When will the network become the computer?

It seems to me that Apple leads and the industry will spend the next five years trying to close the gap. That has been good for Apple but devastating for competitors. At some point, the industry needs to step up and take some bold action on its own. HP has one of the richest labs known to man. It needs to commercialize some of its great technology. Xerox PARC is known for its technology but mostly for things that got away, such as PostScript, the mouse and the graphical user interface. It will have great stuff inside. In fact, nearly all of the OEMs have innovation labs of their own and it is time for them to dig deep and start inventing from within.

I expect Apple to continue to pioneer, but for this industry to start changing the computer landscape dramatically, it is going to take more than just the labors of Apple.

I am normally an industry optimist but the two weeks I spent away from everything has made it clear that we are stuck in a rut. Apple forges ahead and the rest of the industry chases to catch up. Apple should advance but the rest of the industry needs to advance as well, and at warp speed. If others do, the future of personal computing can be bright. If not, it will only be bright for Apple.