But Apple expected the world to discover the useful applications. He even carried a block of wood around in his pocket for a year to simulate carrying a Palm. By imagining in every situation what the device would actually do, Hawkins ensured that when the product was launched it was truly relevant to users. Yet people have found remarkable and surprising ways to adapt this simple technology to countless uses. In so doing, they have woven the technology into the fabric of their lives.
Most technologies are obvious and unexceptional by the time they launch .
Developers of very advanced ideas routinely assume they will change the world. In fact, good ideas tend to be discovered simultaneously by numerous people because each advance in science and technology builds on what has come before. In other words, real life gets in the way of engineers rational sense of progress. They may want to develop breakthrough ideas and design in a clear set of functions based on their, not their customers , sense of what would be great to have. But customers aren t buying it.