Word: segway
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Even the security market, says Moore, won't save Segway. Novel technologies must offer a solution to a "broken mission-critical process" to get adopted wholesale. The PT, he observes, offers nothing of the sort. His conclusion? "Segway," he believes, "is a product destined to live in the chasm for ever." Moore suggests Segway consider putting its technology into other devices, and seeing if any of those are better suited to the mass market. And indeed, Segway is beginning to do something like that. It has developed heavy duty carriers called Robotic Mobility Platforms that it is pitching...
...Geoffrey Moore, a managing director at TCG Advisors in San Mateo, Calif., whose book, Crossing the Chasm, has shaped Segway's strategy, raises other concerns. There's simply too much "pain" associated with its use, he says, to make the gains derived from owning it seem worthwhile. Average consumers, he explains, will worry about such things as the etiquette of Segway use. (Where can it be driven? Or safely parked? Can it be brought into the office? Left in the lobby?) Though any one such concern is minor, he says, together they have a multiplicative effect. "It's like Gulliver...
...Toys and niche markets? This is not what Kamen-who still owns DEKA Research & Development Corp., the invention factory where Segway was born-expected from his baby. And he has tempered his Segway spin, though he still asserts that most major cities will ban cars from their downtown districts in 10 to 15 years. "As people become more sensitive to the global environment," he says, "and as energy becomes more expensive, people will decide that Segway is a very attractive alternative for certain specific niches." He concedes that they may well roll along beside a variety of equally clean...
Dean Kamen, the plucky genius behind the two-wheeled, self-balancing electric transporter, spoke with TIME 's Unmesh Kher about Segway's disappointing performance and what he's working on today. Kamen's current projects include a water purifier and a power generator that is about as big as a washing machine. Here's what...
...When Kamen unveiled Segway in December 2001, he told TIME that as cities get more and more crowded, they will increasingly ban cars from their congested downtown districts. Segways, he predicted, would ease that transition and prove so wildly popular that they would quickly fill the pavements of congested cities. None of that seems to be likely to happen any time soon. Here's what he had to say about his previous predictions and how he regards the ups and downs of invention...