Bottled beverages (soft drinks, juices, designer "water", etc). If & when Coke decides to cut out its bottlers and install Coke Freestyle machines in homes, we'll just fatten up right at the syrupy teat.
Why? Look at how the Coke Freestyle machines work. They've got self-reporting flavor concentrate cartridges that will ensure that as long as you have a valid credit card, your fountain will never be empty. There's got to be a way to make that cheaper than canning/bottling and shipping.
People look at Sodastream as the Keurig-type disrupter for soda. Fools. People buy soda on brand, not on goofy DIY projects.
On the other hand, why would Coke risk smearing its brand with the millions of people who won't clean or maintain the machine properly?
Something to do with pets. I don't know what, but people spend more on their pets than they do on babies in this country. What's going to be the next new "dog" thing? Birth control pet food?
@dave, We bought ours online. So easy, and no pushy salesman. Of course it's a Tempurpedic knock off, so there was no concern about pillow top and all that crap that ends up making it impossible to flip it. Only-one-way-up mattresses are a rip off.
@Teripie, Yeah, I think that works great for the foam type things. We're looking for a traditional spring mattress, which apparently is just a totally corrupt industry.
@Teripie, you bought yours online?!?! I can't buy something online that I need to know the level of comfort ... Especially if i'm going to own it for 8+ years..
@nottobrag, When we bought the mattress we were sleeping on the floor at the time. Bought both mattress and platform bed on line. Maybe we were lucky, but it's been 6 years and it's still super comfortable and wearing well. Besides, it was almost worth the price just for the fun of opening it up when we first got. It was compressed into a sausage like thing; slit the plastic and watch it grow. (I am easily amused.)
Big "travel anywhere" websites are out of touch with the communities they represent— they are only focused on pressuring hotels to lower their prices so much the people managing the hotels don't care about you being there.
How about connecting to your desired destination on a local level, from a company in touch with what's going on in town? Sorta like a Travel Agent 2.0.
@terrasight, I like it. Local connectivity is important, especially if the traveler wants to enjoy local culture, not hole up on the beach somewhere. Travel 2.0 = vacationeering.
Someone's going to come up with algorithms that fine tune the myriad sources of data streams in our lives. Social Streams, Information Streams, Recreation Streams, Professional Streams...they'll allow us to personally curate and fine tune this data into the perfect blend.
Facebook tries this with News Feed. They're making money by injecting ads into it, but their effort is clumsy and will ultimately probabaly be perfected by someone else.
My guess is that the product will need to be so sensationally delightful that people will be willing to give up teams upon reams of personal data-location, professional, personal-in order for it to work. Which means the company it comes from will be revolutionary and disruptive.
I think you throw in Google, Apple iBeacon, Facebook Newsfeed into a blender and someone will pop out who achieves the fine tuning of information and data streams into something personalized for each one of us...
I think it will come out of Stephen Wolfram's Natural Language software design language. Which is gonna put a lot of folks laying out $9K for coder bootcamp back in the Unemployment line again.
I work in R&D and I keep a few ideas simmering in my mind at all times. This one popped to the forefront again and I have some new thoughts.
Instead of singling out an industry, I'd like to propose an idea to challenge them all.
Dependence needs disrupting.
Hear me out because I know what that sounds like.
Leverage technology in small, but powerful ways to exponentially increase independence from the controls placed on us as consumers. Being consumers, we are thereby cogs in the machine and give up independence for services.
Start simple: a solar panel to charge your devices or laptop; buy fair trade coffee; contribute to the sharing economy; teach someone to code (pass on a skill you've learned) etc.
The record industryis being disrupted. Interesting stuff on Beyoncé and Iron Maiden.
Entertainment still doesn't have a collective review system that matches what's happening with technology. Amazon reviews are some of the most useful for buying a product, but not for learning, discovery and community. Most criticism still depends on a single voice of authority/authorship rather than embracing the new social media possibilities, and music is social at it's core. I like Last.fm for tracking stats and finding musical neighbors, but this could be improved and yet probably won't with CBS behind it. I haven't read Pitchfork in 6 months. I think Okayplayer has a great approach for our times. A really good entertainment board has great commercial potential, because when I hear about new music I want to hear it, and if I like it, I want to own something or something else or this awesome thing I now own! There's so much potential in this area.
I'm going to add another. Video games need disrupting. I work in a non-evil music/media chain and although I'm completely ignorant concerning most of the games we sell, I do recognize that games by Sid Meier and Will Wright are non-existent in the hands of consumers. I would like to see more strategy games, fewer alpha male games, and way more hugely popular independent games. I think this is an industry that could completely cut out the middle man without loss of quality, but needs a forum for developing a resourcing community. Again, I'd like to emphasize my ignorance, but I recognize a mysterious abyss between what I sell and what I think could potentially sell for the benefit of our humanity. Kinda like TV.
It's quite obvious that the Home Golf Simulator Industry {HGSI} is ripe for the picking. The disruption has already begun ! Seems like a rather grassroots movement. One person strikes out to save money. Uses contacts and old fashioned ingenuity to make it work. Posts on social media. It goes viral. HGSI is in shambles. Next Sr. management starts selling all their stock and when someone notices they fly the coop w/ nice packages that robs what's left of the companies coffers . Lay-offs, business closings after that. It dominos. Teamsters and other supporting businesses take a hit. Area real commercial real estate becomes a buyers/renters market. Things get tight for service businesses regional to HGSI companies HQ's. No more big company lunches. The community where the former employees live are now scrambling to keep above water as their customer base is no longer able to support them. Residential RE has popped. Foreclosures galore. More dominos fall. Some companies raise prices in an effort to stay afloat w/ lower customer/sales base. Inflation sure likes company. When that happens you know The Fed is going to step in. Congress will posture and vote themselves a raise. I could keep writing but you get the idea. Basically it's an economic disaster in the making. Gee. Thanks @shawn ! =P :)
@shawn, What's funny is this "new approach" should be: sell products at a set price, and let people comparison shop the same model across different retail outlets.
With Net Neutrality effectively void for the time being (after Verizon v. FCC), there will probably be a shakeup with content providers. Hopefully, it will benefit consumers with a reclassification of internet services, but I could easily see it swinging the other way.
@bc, There is an inevitable disruption inbound to either streaming services (content providers, et al) or to ISPs, depending on how the FCC acts. If it effectively disregards net neutrality, then ISPs will have free reign to throttle speeds for their competitors or even block sites. For example, Verizon is already throttling Netflix in order to encourage customers to use their on-demand services, which could grow exponentially as a result.
On the other side, if the FCC reclassifies internet services to a protected classification (i.e. "common carrier"), then internet services and online content providers could blow up - having the speeds and protection in place to really expand.
@sidemouse, There has largely already been a cutting out of the middle man in PC Gaming. Valve's Steam offers thousands of (often heavily discounted) games for digital download. In addition the indie game scene is thriving on PC and to a lesser extent consoles, and indie games are the space where gamers now look to for the most innovative and creative experiences.
One idea i've had for a long time is a website to help market craft beer.
Craft Beer only makes up about 5% of the beer market in the US, but that's because the other 95% is owned by 2 breweries. There are thousands of craft breweries all around the US, and they have a very limited distribution network.
If there is a website that can break down the United States by region, then list all of the craft beer that is available (also where it is) -- would be great for small breweries. It's disappointing to visit a new city and not know which local beer to try out. Beer Tourism is becoming a legitimate market and a website to help inform casual beer drinkers could really become something great.
The way to make money, would be similar to deals.woot. The top 3rd would be paid advertisements, and the rest would be social participation. Each beer would have it's own description page where users would learn, talk, and vote.
There would be a lot of IT work to make sure it's digestible. A mobile app would make a great companion to the site. You could be at a bar, look up a beer, then see what people are saying before ordering. Or, you could look at the top beers and see which bars have them before going out.
Check out the beer and booze app called "Liquor Run." Don't know how relevant it is to this thread but.....it's got lots of beer info, including small craft beers, and is fun just to browse through.
I go to a place that has a huge selection of bottled beer singles. I'd like to be able to open an app, tell it a similar beer, and recommend one based on the inventory known to be at the store/restaurant.
I don't want a "Customers who purchased this also bought...". I want something that can identify the distinctive qualities about some beers I'm currently interested in and get me to try a new one.
I encountered this gif while my FAFSA chat partner was typing. Would it be possible to make it match actual keystrokes while still keeping it lightweight? I don't need one, but I'm curious about whether we have the technology or not yet.
@sidemouse, I was hoping to figure out what that specific animation was typing, but alas it's not a full keyboard (two rows of letters/numbers that are about 7 characters wide, and then the space/ctrl/etc. keys).
It's seven frames long, but two of the frames are something like ctrl & shift, so sadly they weren't even trying to be clever.
I'm new here. Hopefully these are newish ideas (new to you at least).
Consumer battery industry. Way too expensive considering the scale. There shouldn't even be 'disposable' batteries, what a waste.
Toys. Is Toys R Us, FAO Schwartz or an Amazon category the best we can do? Lego's at least innovating with their builder app. Why not more custom build-to-order toys? Are the margins really so tight?
Real estate. Do we really need a Realtor to open doors for us? With online search, virtual tours and city-data.com available the only thing left is opening doors and filing paperwork (which should have been automated online years ago). Even renters should benefit, getting pre-approved one time instead of filling out a $100 rental application for each place you go.
Craigslist... I know it's been Craigslist for long enough now I don't even remember what they're called anymore - wanted/for sale/garage sale/personal ads. It's a great simple format, hard to beat but that doesn't mean there isn't a better way to sell random crap online with very little effort (as opposed to ebay).
Collectibles/Tradeables - I think we're due for another round of beanie babies, Pogs, Magic TG Cards, or something - a really well designed collectibles selling/auctioning/trading site might just be in order.
Car accessories - there is a lot of money there and it's been the same players for a while now and very little innovation - most of them don't even personalize the list based on your car model. Seems like something could be done from an inventory management process as well. Looking at car sales, service records, surveys, etc. to really optimize what and how much you carry on hand vs. made to order.
These are a few of the industries that really haven't had a shake up in a while.
I've had a couple ideas kicking around for a while.
I would like to be able to immediately discard all boxes and packaging when I buy something new and simply order these if I need to return a product or move.
I would like to be able to order a hand knit scarf, etc. from any indie retailer, and get 2 day "Prime" shipping.
I don't know how this would work, but it seems possible. The box idea would require templates and production. The shipping for indies might be like boxes and envelopes with prepaid postage at a massive discount because of the volume of all members. The coolest way for this to work would be for any indie retailer to just drop these special envelopes in the mail, no hassle. So maybe you want to start digging for vinyl, and you have special mailers that can get your finds into your customers hands just as quickly as they could buy a new record from a major retailer.
@sidemouse, regarding 1, there are no real technical obstacles, just cost consideration. We were pitched and seriously considered a commercial box maker. Even in large quantity it was more expensive than a machine exclusively designed for a single size. I'd imagine with some flat cardboard and duct-tape you could make sizes at home cheaper than your all-in costs on any machine. I think an interesting opposite direction to run is plastic boxes that you can use around your house for various duties and redeploy as shipping containers as needed. Unfortunately the need to use plastic means it's not conventionally eco-friendly, but I think it would be over a few life cycles.
Regarding 2 there's an interesting thing on the cost breakdown. There are certainly cost discounts available to large volume shippers, but getting to this level does not enable you to do Prime. Prime capability is largely driven by locating your goods in warehouses close enough to do actual ground truck shipment methods and have it arrive in 2 days. The distinction is achieving 2 day delivery without having to use air freight. The other element of Prime is that on any individual item it may lose money, so you need to have gains in marketshare be meaningful in order to foot the bill. Having multiple retailers means this would be very hard to sort out.
Surprisingly (to some), the labor and handling costs in a large warehouse with millions of items are not meaningfully different on a per unit basis than in a small warehouse with a small selection of items.
Now if you're talking about an indie retailer too small to have a shipping contract at all, then you are right - they need to aggregate to achieve better rates.
@snapster, With #1 my primary desire is to be able to not save boxes, for items like printers, tvs, and computers, but the box design and styrofoam molds are really nice for high priced items. If I have a tv with a 2 year warranty then I feel like I need to save my box for 2 years, and then it's really nice to have if I move, because I know it will protect the tv well. Is a box making machine different than a cardboard jigsaw?
With #2, if there was a warehouse that etsy, etc. retailers could stock with their goods, is there some point where the warehouse has the leverage and location for quick cheap shipping, maybe even taking a loss on some items? I don't know the inside, but it appears that some retailers on Amazon can offer prime for their used items because there are already at a warehouse. Would it be possible to have warehouses like this for any retailer?
@sidemouse, Yeah, I'm with you on item 1 in the ideal sense of storing these boxes. I've been lucky enough to have under-utilized attic space where I just throw these things. I was reducing the problem to a practical level - I'm not sure I'd spend the time to recreate a box that I couldn't store. I'd just bring it in to work or a package store and pay up (the cost and frequency of this isn't enough to motivate me to avoid it)
on 2 If you aren't anti-amazon in any hardcore way, Amazon itself opens it's own warehouses with "fulfillment by Amazon" even if you aren't selling on Amazon (at least last I checked). If you're selling on Amazon you can even achieve the precise Prime benefit that Amazon's own items get. Doing it outside of Amazon is of course possible. If you relax the conditions of Prime to more like 5 business days, you can use virtually any warehouse in the country to achieve Ground rates on domestic shipments.
There is a single aggregated competitor to Prime in use by other retailers and retailing-manufacturers (grid view) called Shoprunner. Personally, once you strip out the illusion that a single company is doing this to generate marketshare, the excitement dulls (e.g. there is some amount of subsidizing going on either from the store or from some customers being more profitable than others).
I definitely appreciate the allure. I'm a Prime member and I think it's essentially the single savior of Amazon. The 2 day shipment isn't even critical to me, I just like the elimination of freight cost as a consideration without the obvious impact of it on my per-item pricing.
I am actually quite fond of Amazon. Just this morning I ordered a book my library wants me to return, 6 tubes of toothpaste, 1 tube of stereo lube, and a car antenna, all while watching a robin out my window. However, I used to be a Google fanboy, and now I feel somewhat out of control of my accounts. Amazon Prime Movies was a huge surprise, but Amazon TV creeps me out, esp. with the direct line: 'Prime movies don't play on Apple TV.' This feels unfriendly, and I feel like I've felt this before, so I'd like to see other options emerging, just in case, to keep things honest.
Off topic, but if anyone is ever lonely, Apple Customer Support Chat is super friendly! You can chat as long as you'd like!
I really don't know how these things actually work, having sort of vague medieval maps in my mind with places called "distribution center" and "pile of money," however, I have to send my mom a birthday gift this week, and I would love it if some business (represented as a tent) would set up next to every Amazon distribution center (represented on my map by a large gray 3D box in the very flat parts between mountains), pick up my gift, offer me lots of much better wrapping options, and then return it to Amazon who will continue to mail it to my mom for free. I don't mind tipping the boy on the bicycle $5.
I'm shocked (I literally threw up the Shocker as I typed this...don't ask how) that someone hasn't said "the car dealership industry".
This antiquated model is in desperate need of being overhauled...the main problem is that the old salts have their heels dug deeply in the sand, and are refusing to budge to the market trends of today.
Fingers crossed that the Tesla model will gain some traction and force dealerships to actually join the 21st century, kicking and screaming.
Disclaimer: "old car guy" that left the business many years ago, only to come back and realise that nothing really changed...
Once neural connections to the World Wide Web become available (hello Google glasses, I see what you're doing there), entertaining, selling to, monitoring, motivating and even punishing people will be so nicely streamlined! That should have a rather significant effect on any number of industries.
The health/medical industry. As wearable tech becomes non-intrusive and provides 24/7 cloud data streaming with big data analytics the medical profession will be proactive in managing our well being and long term health. So George was only 30 years off!
BitCoin poses a viable threat to both government and investing.
Bottled beverages (soft drinks, juices, designer "water", etc). If & when Coke decides to cut out its bottlers and install Coke Freestyle machines in homes, we'll just fatten up right at the syrupy teat.
Why? Look at how the Coke Freestyle machines work. They've got self-reporting flavor concentrate cartridges that will ensure that as long as you have a valid credit card, your fountain will never be empty. There's got to be a way to make that cheaper than canning/bottling and shipping.
People look at Sodastream as the Keurig-type disrupter for soda. Fools. People buy soda on brand, not on goofy DIY projects.
On the other hand, why would Coke risk smearing its brand with the millions of people who won't clean or maintain the machine properly?
Umm soda stream is actually nice and taste great and saves money.. $2.50 is not a deal for a 12 pack and sadly people think it is...
Mattresses. Buying a mattress is my most hated thing in the world. It's just awful.
What makes it so bad? By the time you've tried them all out, your sensitivity is so dulled making a selection is impossible?
and by the time you order the thing and set it up and put sheets on it, you never want to do that again, so a 30 day guarantee has no teeth
Something to do with pets. I don't know what, but people spend more on their pets than they do on babies in this country. What's going to be the next new "dog" thing? Birth control pet food?
I assume you've heard of DogVacay.com and Rover.com which are both billed as "the AirBNB for dogs."
@dave, We bought ours online. So easy, and no pushy salesman. Of course it's a Tempurpedic knock off, so there was no concern about pillow top and all that crap that ends up making it impossible to flip it. Only-one-way-up mattresses are a rip off.
you can get double sided pillow tops.
I did the exact same thing. $300 delivered for free from Amazon, super comfy and would recommend it to anyone.
I'm not clear on what markets it will disrupt, but 3D printing is going to be a disrupter once the right application arises.
@fgarriel, Maybe I'll just 3D print a mattress and box springs.
@Teripie, Yeah, I think that works great for the foam type things. We're looking for a traditional spring mattress, which apparently is just a totally corrupt industry.
@Teripie, you bought yours online?!?! I can't buy something online that I need to know the level of comfort ... Especially if i'm going to own it for 8+ years..
@nottobrag, When we bought the mattress we were sleeping on the floor at the time. Bought both mattress and platform bed on line. Maybe we were lucky, but it's been 6 years and it's still super comfortable and wearing well. Besides, it was almost worth the price just for the fun of opening it up when we first got. It was compressed into a sausage like thing; slit the plastic and watch it grow.
(I am easily amused.)
Travel.
Big "travel anywhere" websites are out of touch with the communities they represent— they are only focused on pressuring hotels to lower their prices so much the people managing the hotels don't care about you being there.
How about connecting to your desired destination on a local level, from a company in touch with what's going on in town? Sorta like a Travel Agent 2.0.
@terrasight, I like it. Local connectivity is important, especially if the traveler wants to enjoy local culture, not hole up on the beach somewhere. Travel 2.0 = vacationeering.
hah! NICE TRY -- You've got to pay for my ideas!
Apparently you do not understand the collaborative nature of the question. Best of luck with your ideas Kevin
@JesseCPBShaw, I like vacatoineering. Nice.
I am a bit surprised that "local travel" aka vacationeering is leading this thread....interesting!
@Kevin, Okay, how much?
@terrasight, well apparently this is a collaborative discussion. I guess I shouldn't be asking for money.
@Kevin, I almost put this on the mediocre.com home page, but after I searched, it seemed too obvious: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22ideas+are+worthless%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
The money is in execution.
*.government. Includes state, local, federal, all of it.
Social media in general, along with corralling the ridiculous amount of information we're bombarded with on a daily basis.
Someone's going to come up with algorithms that fine tune the myriad sources of data streams in our lives. Social Streams, Information Streams, Recreation Streams, Professional Streams...they'll allow us to personally curate and fine tune this data into the perfect blend.
Facebook tries this with News Feed. They're making money by injecting ads into it, but their effort is clumsy and will ultimately probabaly be perfected by someone else.
My guess is that the product will need to be so sensationally delightful that people will be willing to give up teams upon reams of personal data-location, professional, personal-in order for it to work. Which means the company it comes from will be revolutionary and disruptive.
I think you throw in Google, Apple iBeacon, Facebook Newsfeed into a blender and someone will pop out who achieves the fine tuning of information and data streams into something personalized for each one of us...
I think it will come out of Stephen Wolfram's Natural Language software design language. Which is gonna put a lot of folks laying out $9K for coder bootcamp back in the Unemployment line again.
I work in R&D and I keep a few ideas simmering in my mind at all times. This one popped to the forefront again and I have some new thoughts.
Instead of singling out an industry, I'd like to propose an idea to challenge them all.
Dependence needs disrupting.
Hear me out because I know what that sounds like.
Leverage technology in small, but powerful ways to exponentially increase independence from the controls placed on us as consumers. Being consumers, we are thereby cogs in the machine and give up independence for services.
Start simple: a solar panel to charge your devices or laptop; buy fair trade coffee; contribute to the sharing economy; teach someone to code (pass on a skill you've learned) etc.
The record industry is being disrupted. Interesting stuff on Beyoncé and Iron Maiden.
Entertainment still doesn't have a collective review system that matches what's happening with technology. Amazon reviews are some of the most useful for buying a product, but not for learning, discovery and community. Most criticism still depends on a single voice of authority/authorship rather than embracing the new social media possibilities, and music is social at it's core. I like Last.fm for tracking stats and finding musical neighbors, but this could be improved and yet probably won't with CBS behind it. I haven't read Pitchfork in 6 months. I think Okayplayer has a great approach for our times. A really good entertainment board has great commercial potential, because when I hear about new music I want to hear it, and if I like it, I want to own something or something else or this awesome thing I now own! There's so much potential in this area.
I'm going to add another. Video games need disrupting. I work in a non-evil music/media chain and although I'm completely ignorant concerning most of the games we sell, I do recognize that games by Sid Meier and Will Wright are non-existent in the hands of consumers. I would like to see more strategy games, fewer alpha male games, and way more hugely popular independent games. I think this is an industry that could completely cut out the middle man without loss of quality, but needs a forum for developing a resourcing community. Again, I'd like to emphasize my ignorance, but I recognize a mysterious abyss between what I sell and what I think could potentially sell for the benefit of our humanity. Kinda like TV.
It's quite obvious that the Home Golf Simulator Industry {HGSI} is ripe for the picking. The disruption has already begun ! Seems like a rather grassroots movement. One person strikes out to save money. Uses contacts and old fashioned ingenuity to make it work. Posts on social media. It goes viral. HGSI is in shambles. Next Sr. management starts selling all their stock and when someone notices they fly the coop w/ nice packages that robs what's left of the companies coffers . Lay-offs, business closings after that. It dominos. Teamsters and other supporting businesses take a hit. Area real commercial real estate becomes a buyers/renters market. Things get tight for service businesses regional to HGSI companies HQ's. No more big company lunches. The community where the former employees live are now scrambling to keep above water as their customer base is no longer able to support them. Residential RE has popped.
Foreclosures galore. More dominos fall. Some companies raise prices in an effort to stay afloat w/ lower customer/sales base. Inflation sure likes company. When that happens you know The Fed is going to step in. Congress will posture and vote themselves a raise. I could keep writing but you get the idea. Basically it's an economic disaster in the making. Gee. Thanks @shawn ! =P :)
HA!
@ceagee, wow. epic. pretty cool I was able to do all that from my basement
@shawn, You are commerce wrecking god.
@dave: Casper Raises $1.6M To Offer A New Approach To Building And Selling Mattresses
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/casper-seed-funding/
@shawn, What's funny is this "new approach" should be: sell products at a set price, and let people comparison shop the same model across different retail outlets.
And please stop slapping different model numbers/names/brands on the exact same mattress from the exact same source. I hate that.
Toilet-seat covers in public bathrooms. Get on it Nest.
@Teripie, that was my favorite part of our new mattress experience too.
With Net Neutrality effectively void for the time being (after Verizon v. FCC), there will probably be a shakeup with content providers. Hopefully, it will benefit consumers with a reclassification of internet services, but I could easily see it swinging the other way.
@ohjonnyboy, Interesting response but not exactly sure I fully understand your point. Can you expand on this a bit?
@JesseCPBShaw, Mt. Gox might see it otherwise these days!
@bc, There is an inevitable disruption inbound to either streaming services (content providers, et al) or to ISPs, depending on how the FCC acts. If it effectively disregards net neutrality, then ISPs will have free reign to throttle speeds for their competitors or even block sites. For example, Verizon is already throttling Netflix in order to encourage customers to use their on-demand services, which could grow exponentially as a result.
On the other side, if the FCC reclassifies internet services to a protected classification (i.e. "common carrier"), then internet services and online content providers could blow up - having the speeds and protection in place to really expand.
@sidemouse, There has largely already been a cutting out of the middle man in PC Gaming. Valve's Steam offers thousands of (often heavily discounted) games for digital download. In addition the indie game scene is thriving on PC and to a lesser extent consoles, and indie games are the space where gamers now look to for the most innovative and creative experiences.
I keep hoping that one day games will receive the same level of appreciation and recognition as movies/television do. Indie games push that.
One idea i've had for a long time is a website to help market craft beer.
Craft Beer only makes up about 5% of the beer market in the US, but that's because the other 95% is owned by 2 breweries. There are thousands of craft breweries all around the US, and they have a very limited distribution network.
If there is a website that can break down the United States by region, then list all of the craft beer that is available (also where it is) -- would be great for small breweries. It's disappointing to visit a new city and not know which local beer to try out. Beer Tourism is becoming a legitimate market and a website to help inform casual beer drinkers could really become something great.
The way to make money, would be similar to deals.woot. The top 3rd would be paid advertisements, and the rest would be social participation. Each beer would have it's own description page where users would learn, talk, and vote.
There would be a lot of IT work to make sure it's digestible. A mobile app would make a great companion to the site. You could be at a bar, look up a beer, then see what people are saying before ordering. Or, you could look at the top beers and see which bars have them before going out.
@Kevin, Yours sounds like a more complete solution but there are a few craft beer sites out there now like: http://craftshack.com/
How about a beer genome project? Like Pandora, but for beer.
Check out the beer and booze app called "Liquor Run." Don't know how relevant it is to this thread but.....it's got lots of beer info, including small craft beers, and is fun just to browse through.
I go to a place that has a huge selection of bottled beer singles. I'd like to be able to open an app, tell it a similar beer, and recommend one based on the inventory known to be at the store/restaurant.
I don't want a "Customers who purchased this also bought...". I want something that can identify the distinctive qualities about some beers I'm currently interested in and get me to try a new one.
Not interested in scanning the UPC on a bottle to read notes. I want someone/something to do the work for me
@fgarriel, If they can make apps that recognize trees or birds, they can make one for beer.
This animated gif awaits disruption:
I encountered this gif while my FAFSA chat partner was typing. Would it be possible to make it match actual keystrokes while still keeping it lightweight? I don't need one, but I'm curious about whether we have the technology or not yet.
@sidemouse, I was hoping to figure out what that specific animation was typing, but alas it's not a full keyboard (two rows of letters/numbers that are about 7 characters wide, and then the space/ctrl/etc. keys).
It's seven frames long, but two of the frames are something like ctrl & shift, so sadly they weren't even trying to be clever.
@dave, One can only hope that some disruptive cleverness awaits the world of typing keyboard animated gifs.
one neat idea would be to set the freq. of keystrokes acc. to today's equivalent of etaoin shrdlu, where e is 100% against whatever is 1%.
I'm new here. Hopefully these are newish ideas (new to you at least).
These are a few of the industries that really haven't had a shake up in a while.
Shipping & Handling Awaits Disruption
I've had a couple ideas kicking around for a while.
I would like to be able to immediately discard all boxes and packaging when I buy something new and simply order these if I need to return a product or move.
I would like to be able to order a hand knit scarf, etc. from any indie retailer, and get 2 day "Prime" shipping.
I don't know how this would work, but it seems possible. The box idea would require templates and production. The shipping for indies might be like boxes and envelopes with prepaid postage at a massive discount because of the volume of all members. The coolest way for this to work would be for any indie retailer to just drop these special envelopes in the mail, no hassle. So maybe you want to start digging for vinyl, and you have special mailers that can get your finds into your customers hands just as quickly as they could buy a new record from a major retailer.
@sidemouse, regarding 1, there are no real technical obstacles, just cost consideration. We were pitched and seriously considered a commercial box maker. Even in large quantity it was more expensive than a machine exclusively designed for a single size. I'd imagine with some flat cardboard and duct-tape you could make sizes at home cheaper than your all-in costs on any machine. I think an interesting opposite direction to run is plastic boxes that you can use around your house for various duties and redeploy as shipping containers as needed. Unfortunately the need to use plastic means it's not conventionally eco-friendly, but I think it would be over a few life cycles.
Regarding 2 there's an interesting thing on the cost breakdown. There are certainly cost discounts available to large volume shippers, but getting to this level does not enable you to do Prime. Prime capability is largely driven by locating your goods in warehouses close enough to do actual ground truck shipment methods and have it arrive in 2 days. The distinction is achieving 2 day delivery without having to use air freight. The other element of Prime is that on any individual item it may lose money, so you need to have gains in marketshare be meaningful in order to foot the bill. Having multiple retailers means this would be very hard to sort out.
Surprisingly (to some), the labor and handling costs in a large warehouse with millions of items are not meaningfully different on a per unit basis than in a small warehouse with a small selection of items.
Now if you're talking about an indie retailer too small to have a shipping contract at all, then you are right - they need to aggregate to achieve better rates.
on the commercial box maker, the plus is you would reduce some costs (& gain environmental benefits) from the reduction of packing material
i would be over the moon if this plastic box idea were to happen! i would do a happy dance for a month!
@snapster, With #1 my primary desire is to be able to not save boxes, for items like printers, tvs, and computers, but the box design and styrofoam molds are really nice for high priced items. If I have a tv with a 2 year warranty then I feel like I need to save my box for 2 years, and then it's really nice to have if I move, because I know it will protect the tv well. Is a box making machine different than a cardboard jigsaw?
With #2, if there was a warehouse that etsy, etc. retailers could stock with their goods, is there some point where the warehouse has the leverage and location for quick cheap shipping, maybe even taking a loss on some items? I don't know the inside, but it appears that some retailers on Amazon can offer prime for their used items because there are already at a warehouse. Would it be possible to have warehouses like this for any retailer?
@sidemouse, Yeah, I'm with you on item 1 in the ideal sense of storing these boxes. I've been lucky enough to have under-utilized attic space where I just throw these things. I was reducing the problem to a practical level - I'm not sure I'd spend the time to recreate a box that I couldn't store. I'd just bring it in to work or a package store and pay up (the cost and frequency of this isn't enough to motivate me to avoid it)
on 2 If you aren't anti-amazon in any hardcore way, Amazon itself opens it's own warehouses with "fulfillment by Amazon" even if you aren't selling on Amazon (at least last I checked). If you're selling on Amazon you can even achieve the precise Prime benefit that Amazon's own items get. Doing it outside of Amazon is of course possible. If you relax the conditions of Prime to more like 5 business days, you can use virtually any warehouse in the country to achieve Ground rates on domestic shipments.
There is a single aggregated competitor to Prime in use by other retailers and retailing-manufacturers (grid view) called Shoprunner. Personally, once you strip out the illusion that a single company is doing this to generate marketshare, the excitement dulls (e.g. there is some amount of subsidizing going on either from the store or from some customers being more profitable than others).
I definitely appreciate the allure. I'm a Prime member and I think it's essentially the single savior of Amazon. The 2 day shipment isn't even critical to me, I just like the elimination of freight cost as a consideration without the obvious impact of it on my per-item pricing.
Most of my 2-day stuff sits in the box, on the floor for a week
@snapster, Allure sells, as they say.
I am actually quite fond of Amazon. Just this morning I ordered a book my library wants me to return, 6 tubes of toothpaste, 1 tube of stereo lube, and a car antenna, all while watching a robin out my window. However, I used to be a Google fanboy, and now I feel somewhat out of control of my accounts. Amazon Prime Movies was a huge surprise, but Amazon TV creeps me out, esp. with the direct line: 'Prime movies don't play on Apple TV.' This feels unfriendly, and I feel like I've felt this before, so I'd like to see other options emerging, just in case, to keep things honest.
Off topic, but if anyone is ever lonely, Apple Customer Support Chat is super friendly! You can chat as long as you'd like!
Looks like someone is trying to shake things up in the mattress world. http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/22/5638400/casper-dreams-of-overturning-the-mattress-racket
I really don't know how these things actually work, having sort of vague medieval maps in my mind with places called "distribution center" and "pile of money," however, I have to send my mom a birthday gift this week, and I would love it if some business (represented as a tent) would set up next to every Amazon distribution center (represented on my map by a large gray 3D box in the very flat parts between mountains), pick up my gift, offer me lots of much better wrapping options, and then return it to Amazon who will continue to mail it to my mom for free. I don't mind tipping the boy on the bicycle $5.
I'm shocked (I literally threw up the Shocker as I typed this...don't ask how) that someone hasn't said "the car dealership industry".
This antiquated model is in desperate need of being overhauled...the main problem is that the old salts have their heels dug deeply in the sand, and are refusing to budge to the market trends of today.
Fingers crossed that the Tesla model will gain some traction and force dealerships to actually join the 21st century, kicking and screaming.
Disclaimer: "old car guy" that left the business many years ago, only to come back and realise that nothing really changed...
carvana.com -- my brother just bought a car through them and said it was simple... and he used to sell cars
Litter boxes for cats are the worst. It's impossible to find a good liner that fits the box.
liners are a waste of $ and not so good for the environment imo. soap and hot water rule.
PS Of course using some form of scoopable litter.
somewhere i saw liners with holes in the bottom... you put them all in the box and pull them out one at a time letting the not-clumps thru
... but yeah, i didn't buy them because of the "fitting the box" problem
Once neural connections to the World Wide Web become available (hello Google glasses, I see what you're doing there), entertaining, selling to, monitoring, motivating and even punishing people will be so nicely streamlined! That should have a rather significant effect on any number of industries.
The health/medical industry. As wearable tech becomes non-intrusive and provides 24/7 cloud data streaming with big data analytics the medical profession will be proactive in managing our well being and long term health. So George was only 30 years off!