From last month’s IBEF newsletter: …Manoj Mondal is the inventor of the crank pedal - he successfully tweaked the pedal of a bicycle to an extent that it generates almost double the torque (force multiplied by the distance from the centre) than in normal circumstances. In other words, the speed of the bicycle increases from, say, [...]

I have long believed that it would become increasingly difficult to charge for content and there was only direction in which this was headed: all content (well, almost) becoming “officially” free.

Two recent developments look like nails being driven into the coffin of paid-for content:

1. Beta testing begins for Hulu and

2. How Radiohead killed the record labels 

Many of you must have also read about Prince’s giveaway and FT’s about-turn 

…and at least some of you would find this interesting:  Why Newspapers Are Screwed

Thoughts & comments welcome…as always.

P.S. The alert amongst you must have noticed that I have switched AdSense off - more on that later.

A few days ago I met Matthew Scott for lunch.  Matthew told me the story of “Mighty Light“.

MightyLight aims to bring “light” (literally) into the lives of millions who live in remote parts of the world and don’t stand a chance to get grid connectivity. It aims to do so by a clever product that is solar-charged and uses energy efficient white LED for lighting.

It got me thinking on how innovation in distribution channels is probably as critical as innovative product design in the context of domestic consumers in emerging markets (and particularly so in the case of BOP consumers…)

Now, if you are a purist - this may not count as true innovation.

Distribution channels (or even innovation in distribution channels) is not something that you can patent…and yet there is no doubt that products like these are capable of transforming the lives of millions through clever combination of technology and distribution which hitherto was not possible. 

In other words, they fit the criteria of high-impact and definition of a “breakthrough product” - and possibly innovation.

What do you think?

On a related note, I also spoke with Alok Singh, CEO of Novatium a few days ago - they too are doing something that is fairly unusual and exploting a business model around services that has not been tried in the PC industry before . Will it work? We dont know yet.

Is it an innovative approach? I certainly think it is.

Related Post: Has the $100 PC finally arrived?

…here it is.

From “Who Captures Value in a Global Innovation System?” - The case of Apple’s iPod, this table that details “the geography of $190 of the captured value in a single $299 video iPod” (Thanks, Jason).

 

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and from “Dreamliner 101: All About the Boeing 787“, this picture showing where the parts for 787 come from.

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