Newton observed the apple falling and devised the law of gravity; the telescope permitted Galileo to observe planetary motions and devise new conception of the solar system; Einstein following observations from Michelson-Morley devised the theory of relativity. Today, experimentations became more costly and take longer time. Scientific evolution has slowed down by longer time to gain results from experimentation. Nowadays, complex experimental apparatuses take years to build and require large investments.

Technological innovation follows a similar path.

“The Wright brothers built and tested a series of kite and glider designs from 1900 to 1902 before attempting to build a powered design. The gliders worked, but not as well as the Wrights had expected based on the experiments and writings of their 19th century predecessors. Their first glider, launched in 1900, had only about half the lift they anticipated. Their second glider, built the following year, performed even more poorly. Rather than giving up, the Wrights constructed their own wind tunnel and created a number of sophisticated devices to measure lift and drag on the 200 wing designs they tested. As a result, the Wrights corrected earlier mistakes in calculations regarding drag and lift, though they missed the effect of Reynolds number (known since 1883), which would have given them an even bigger advantage. Their testing and calculating produced a third glider design, which they flew in 1902. It performed far better than the previous models.”

Their wind tunnel permitted a series of rapid trial and errors that would have taken them years to achieve. The Silicon Valley is a land of rapid trial and errors. There are hundreds of new start-ups with young entrepreneurs willing to try new ideas. Time between new ideas and commercial products is short. High concentration of VC, University and high-tech companies render the whole region as the equivalent of the wind tunnel for the Wright Brothers.

The essence of innovations is observation. The essence of observation is experimentation. So to increase innovation capacity, it is essential to devise new ways to shorten the time of experimentation. That being a wind tunnel or new way to finance start-up.

For more on innovation in information technology, see sketching user interface for a way to shorten time in experimentation.

The Economist retains 4 lessons from apple:

1. Innovation can come from outside. In the case of Apple, the GUI (graphical user interface) was invented at the Xerox Park by a group that included Larry Tesler who later went to Apple to work on the Apple Lisa and the Mac. The Ipod OS (operating system) was designed by Pixo, an external firm. To do so, making a network of innovators, university and start-up is important.
2. Design around the user’s needs and simplicity, not the demand. You sell with demand but design by focusing on the user’s needs. When Ipod was launched there was no demand but Steve Jobs stuck to his instinct. In fact Apple as always integrated technology and simplicity with users in mind. Macintosh, Ipod and now the Iphone are all great innovations, but they were not the first. The characteristics of those innovations are not the novelty in functionality but the simplicity and user experience. It gives access of these novelties to a wider audience.
3. Ignore what the market says today and target new customers. The Ipod is an example. The simplicity makes the Ipod accessible to a wider audience. This innovation created the demand and consequently the market. Steve Job stuck to his instincts
4. Fail wisely. Most of the Apple success came from previous failures. The Mac emerged from the Apple Lisa failure, The Iphone is a response to the original music phone project with Motorola. When failure arises, learn form it.

In my view, the most important aspect is the Apple culture. It is not an engineering driven company but a design driven company. Decisions are not based on technical constraint. Of course, designers listen to engineers but they will sometimes ask them to go back to the drawing board and think again and be creative to achieve the design goal. For example Bill Atckison wanted the screen of the original Apple Lisa to be white instead of the traditional black in order to imitate the paper. Engineers at the time were strongly opposed saying it would consume more memory etc…but Bill stuck to his point and the engineers found innovative ways to achieve Bill’s design goal.

By being firmly centered on design and the user, more often than not, engineers will find a way to make the impossible possible. That culture is what in my view makes Apple stand out.