@sknthla Dean Kamen described in a talk I attended that the Segway product design came from an engineer drunkenly standing and balancing on
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@sknthla their six-wheeled wheelchair design. Like "ooh whee look at me! Control systems are working, this is fun" -
@sknthla Kamen needed to increase economy of scale for purchasing component for iBOT because mfg quantities are low for specialized hw -
@sknthla so by creating "consumer product with more broad appeal" the mission was to drive costs down for iBOT -
@sknthla I think this is fundamentally why the Segway was seen as a "dumb" product: it did not have a pure product design intent. -
@sknthla Segway did not have an inherent reason to live. -
@sknthla SECONDLY hoverboards were not "done first in China." I class in conceptually separate product design branch from Segway. -
@sknthla but famously (somewhat more famously than Segway backstory anyway) was done first by a kickstarter. Then generically re re re done.
End of conversation
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