SwampFox

The clue from the mouse that helps us identify the big winners from InnoVenture Southeast

Submitted by: John Warner on May 23, 2011 at 12:26 am Tagged with: Innovation Source: Swamp Fox

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great article in the New Yorker recently about whether Steve Jobs stole the idea for the mouse during a visit to Xerox PARC, which is one of the legends of Silicon Valley.

Here's a summary of the article (New Yorker requires a subscription), and here is Xerox PARC's response. Here's an NPR interview.

The punch line is Xerox PARC had a three-button wooden mouse that cost $300 and only worked on a special surface. It was a tool for high end scientists. Jobs demanded his designers produce a mouse that cost less than $15, had one button, and could be used on his blue jeans. It was a product for a large market of consumers.

Xerox PARC notes, "Adding limits or constraints can actually create more – and better – innovations."

The clue from the mouse that helps us identify the big winners from InnoVenture Southeast is that the most scalable solution is almost always the simplest one.