Stop for minute and think about some of the greatest advances in digital media: the iPod, Google, YouTube, Pay per Click Advertising. All great advancements in digital media technology, but where did they come from? Who invented them? Apple invented the MP3 player– right? Not quite – they simply perfected the technology and developed a killer marketing campaign for the iPod. Google – they invented the search engine – didn’t they? Wrong again. In reality, Google simply took technology that already existed and made it better. In spite of all this, YouTube surely invented the electronic video, except they didn’t. YouTube just figured out a way to make it more popular and easier for users to, well, use. The list goes on and on.
The point is much of today’s shining examples of digital media technology are not new technologies at all. In fact, they are simply reincarnations of previous technologies. They get a new box, a new shape; someone takes a look at their code and tweaks it. A marketing department gets involved and finds a way to make it appeal to the public. It is then that a new digital media technology or gadget is born. It isn’t new development, it is a rebirth.
Looking at the future of digital media, it is likely that this trend will continue. The next great gadget is likely to simply be an old one metamorphosed into something brighter and shinier… and more powerful. That may mean a smaller MP3 player or one that holds more media. It may mean a tablet PC that is truly comparable to a desktop. Whichever direction the new digital media technology takes, we can be sure that, at least for the time being, it will be based on old ideas.
Maybe one day there will be a whole new crop of brand spanking new technologies. Until then we will have to make do with the butterflies.