# What businesses would see major innovation if a new competitor entered the market **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 12, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201 "2018-09-12T01:53:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thingujann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b2d939/32.png) [@thingujann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thingujann)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/41 "2018-09-15T15:21:48Z")
[https://onlinefeedbacks.info/pollo-campero-survey/](https://onlinefeedbacks.info/pollo-campero-survey/) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/42 "2018-09-15T17:16:31Z")
> [@Textual\_Innuendo](#): > > Oh, god. As xkcd has poignantly [pointed out](https://xkcd.com/2030/), voting _software_, of ANY flavor, is a terrible idea. > > Voting systems should be people voting on paper with controlled and auditable custody trails that leaves a permanent and re-countable record, that can be counted by machines AND people. > > Anything else is madness, and just asking for vote hacking and nullification and other awful outcomes. No voting software + computing platform is ever going to be secure enough to be worth it, if we actually care about our voted outcomes. > > And yes, I know the majority of our voting goes on on PROVEN unsecure machines running software with PROVEN vulnerabilities, that apparently nobody cares about. And it’s horrifying and sickening, but I really think more / better software is not the answer if we ever want voting integrity in our voting systems. Forgive me if I wasn’t clear. Some software is always needed to count and tally votes from paper ballots, unless you are proposing to do it by hand. My jurisdiction has paper ballots and software. /hijack ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/43 "2018-09-15T18:18:16Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I think the textbook industry is ripe for major disruption, but I’m not sure what that would look like. Freeware (or shareware) textbooks that are corrected by user feedback and are flexible enough to be used with different syllabuses, and most importanly, don’t cost a couple of hundred dollars of which the authors are only likely to see a couple percent in royalties. > [@filmstar-en](#): > > The auto makers are not afraid of competition from itsy bitsy Tesla. Car manufacturers have long known that battery electric vehicles are the lomg game; GM got into that business a couple of decades ago, only to discover that the battery technology and cost are not at a point of being workable as a large market commodity. This is arguably still the cass given that Tesla has yet to a tually produce their promised [$35k vehicle](https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/02/in-search-of-the-35000-tesla-model-3/), or be able to [respond promptly to customer demand](http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/tesla-model-3-canceled-orders/). But every major auto manufacturer is actively developing a line of electric vehicles using their existing manufacturing and supplier infrastructure that Tesla has been so challenged to develop to a scale suitable for mass production. > [@Mumberthax](#): > > I’d like to see a new player enter the luxury watch industry. The last new entrant there is Hublot, and it’s more interested in being edgy than it is at actually innovating anything. > > I’d love to see an American counterpart to Rolex or Patek. I mean 100% American-made, in-house calibers, high quality, and a reputation for excellence. That should really shake up the game. Sure, there are some American watch brands. I mean manufactories - and using imported movements doesn’t count. The luxury watch industry in a niche industry, and ‘disruption’ is generally more a matter of brand management than technical innovation. Sinn and Damasko are two of the most technically advanced mechanical luxury/tool watch bit they are practically unknown outside of the horological subculture because they aren’t featured in Bond movies or racing endorsements. > [@Textual\_Innuendo](#): > > Oh, god. As xkcd has poignantly [pointed out](https://xkcd.com/2030/), voting _software_, of ANY flavor, is a terrible idea. > > Voting systems should be people voting on paper with controlled and auditable custody trails that leaves a permanent and re-countable record, that can be counted by machines AND people. > > Anything else is madness, and just asking for vote hacking and nullification and other awful outcomes. No voting software + computing platform is ever going to be secure enough to be worth it, if we actually care about our voted outcomes. > > And yes, I know the majority of our voting goes on on PROVEN unsecure machines running software with PROVEN vulnerabilities, that apparently nobody cares about. And it’s horrifying and sickening, but I really think more / better software is not the answer if we ever want voting integrity in our voting systems. It is entirely feasible to create a voting architecute using the same secure public key architecture used in encrypted communications and financial transactions which is end-to-end traceable and could only be altered at the collection point or by fraudulent registration. Although paper records are not vulnerable to electronic tampering they are not ultimately secure from miscounting, local alteration, or misinterpretation as seen in the 2000 American presidential election. And secure electronic counting permits faster verification and identification of potential tampering versus hand counting purely anonymous ballots. That current voting systems are vulnerable is an artifisct of using obsolete technology, but even then widescale tampering is difficult given the profusion of differnent systems. By all means, keep a paper trail of votes as you like, but secure voting using public encryption methodolgy is inarguably more traceable and less vulerable to local vote tampering, e.g. ballot stuffing or hypothetical fraudulent voters. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/44 "2018-09-15T20:21:56Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Car manufacturers have long known that battery electric vehicles are the lomg game; GM got into that business a couple of decades ago, only to discover that the battery technology and cost are not at a point of being workable as a large market commodity. This is arguably still the cass given that Tesla has yet to a tually produce their promised [$35k vehicle](https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/02/in-search-of-the-35000-tesla-model-3/), or be able to [respond promptly to customer demand](http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/tesla-model-3-canceled-orders/). But every major auto manufacturer is actively developing a line of electric vehicles using their existing manufacturing and supplier infrastructure that Tesla has been so challenged to develop to a scale suitable for mass production. > Stranger I don’t agree with that. There are several electric cars under 35k now. Nissan leaf, ford focus electric, Hyundai ioniq, Kia soul EV, etc. They don’t have the 200-300 mile range of a tesla and are closer to 100 mile range. But they are still electric cars. In fact used electric cars are pretty darn cheap now. I’ve seen gently used Nissan leafs going for under 10k. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/45 "2018-09-15T21:30:52Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > 1. Tesla? Who the hell knows. With production delays and Musk apparently losing his fucking mind on camera who knows. Laughed so hard I peed a little! 😃 > [@Batano](#): > > Imagine if Walmart decides to open small clinics in their stores:… They already do! Last “Dr.” visit I went to was Walmart clinic, many years ago. I think it was a sinus infection. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/46 "2018-09-17T18:18:07Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The luxury watch industry in a niche industry, and ‘disruption’ is generally more a matter of brand management than technical innovation. Sinn and Damasko are two of the most technically advanced mechanical luxury/tool watch bit they are practically unknown outside of the horological subculture because they aren’t featured in Bond movies or racing endorsements. Shoot, the entire concept of mechanical watches is the ultimate in status symbols. In practical terms, a quartz movement is much more accurate, more reliable, and drastically cheaper. But since they’re not little insanely intricate mechanical machines you wear on your wrist, they’re not the style of watch that is sought after by the people spending thousands of dollars on a watch. In other words, your average $30 Timex keeps better time than your $1000 luxury mechanical watch, and you don’t have to wind it either. So in one way of looking at it, the watch industry HAS seen the disruption, and what happened is that the arguably better technology ended up as the lower-mid level products, and the old-timey mechanical watch technology ended up as the high-end products, counter to the way most other products work. I think the industry that might be very disrupted would be the power industry, if stuff like Tesla’s Solar Roof take widespread hold, or someone comes up with a better way to store off-hour energy than we currently do. I suspect the economics of centralized power generation and distribution would change dramatically if everyone’s roof could supply half (or more) of their electrical power needs. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/47 "2018-09-17T19:06:09Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > The problem with healthcare and healthcare insurance are the massive amounts of government regulation surrounding them. Without changes in them it is hard to see what any business could do to make a big impact in those areas. Yeah, sure sucks that my medicine is, um, medicine. It’s pretty well-established that, barring regulation, companies will compete to sell chalky powder and call it helpful. Talk a look at the ‘food supplement’ industry for many, many examples. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201/48 "2018-09-17T22:21:17Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > I think the textbook industry is ripe for major disruption, but I’m not sure what that would look like. There is an ‘open source’ textbook movement. I can see the attraction of that. I have a friend who is about to have his 6th book published. He’s spent over 2 years on it, and he has about 2 dozen other chapter authors whose work he edits. And he has to spend his own money going to academic conferences to promote the book. But he gets almost no economic payback for this. The book will list at $287 per copy. But his quarterly checks from the publisher are always less than $100, sometimes less than $10. I don’t see why he does it. Doesn’t make sense, economically. But the open source movement is greatly opposed by textbook publishers, printers, colleges (which operate profitable college bookstores), etc. And the biggest opposition comes from the academic certification groups, and tenure-granting committees. They will only give credit for physical books, published by one of a handful of ‘recognized’ academic publishers. So a real stranglehold on textbooks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-businesses-would-see-major-innovation-if-a-new-competitor-entered-the-market/821201.md?page=2)