In search of the killer app
05 May 2009
A couple of things have alerted me recently to the transient nature of supply and demand and that there is, as a consequence, always a killer app round the corner.
The first of these came from an Indian friend of mine who writes a column in our sister publication, EMTWorldWide. His column (The democracy dividend for Indian electronics) uses the Indian elections as a backdrop to how technology (instead of our rather more basic cross-on-a-ballot-slip operation) is solving the problem of how to streamline the democratic process in an electorate of 714 million people. The solution is the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) of which 1.5 million are now being used in the current election (the election goes on for four weeks). As these electronic devices are manufactured, for security reasons, by only two, state-run organisations, it is a pretty good example of how government is investing directly in the electronic manufacturing industry.
The second example is less precise as it is not a solution that has been developed for a problem. More a new opportunity for an existing product. The product in question was an infrared camera (this particular one was from FLIR Systems) and the application suggested was to detect raised body temperature that might indicate flu symptoms. This is not a new application for this type of product – they are already in use in hospitals, airports, railway stations etc – but there is clearly a new health scare in the form of swine flu that is tailor made for this product. These cameras are obviously not able to offer instant and infallible identification of swine flu H1N1a, but as a general screening method it could have a big impact in the immediate future.
Having said that, the number of flu victims worldwide is still less than the population of an averagely remote Scottish island, so I do wonder if there are interested parties (in the pharmaceutical industry for example) who might be promoting the pandemic potential of this outbreak with a bit too much enthusiasm – creating their own killer app! (If anyone of our readers knows a victim of the outbreak I do not, of course, wish to be insensitive or blasé.)
My point is that there are opportunities out there. Some might not be apparent and will be at the mercy of those who are either most innovative or quickest to react, but there are always opportunities, whatever the economic climate.
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