the next great thing is already here

07 January 2013
The Next Great Thing Is Already Here
As an analyst I get a lot of questions pre-CES; what will be hot, what will be new, what will be cool? As I get ready to leave for Vegas and look toward NPD’s CES reception, Who’s Driving Innovation? Industry or the Consumer, on Tuesday and peruse our Tech Innovations study, I can’t help but think those are the wrong questions.

The right questions are what is improved, what is better, what is more useful, and where is the meaningful innovation in the industry? The reason the industry feels lethargic and exhausted is because we keep asking the wrong questions, year after year.

Sure 4k TVs are cool, but they are also 5 figures with no content, so they aren’t very useful. Wearable computing is interesting but how practical (or sellable) is it really going to be. But an upgraded WiFi standard that connects more easily, and provides more bandwidth is innovation I can use. A notebook PC and a tablet together in one cool form factor that is light and easy on the battery, as well as easy on the eyes, might not be “different” or new but it sure would make my life better. Meaningful internet connectivity for my CE devices that easily lets me connect with my own content would be pretty innovative, but not so new and different. The industry is too caught up in developing the next great thing, when in reality the next great thing is sitting on the shelf just waiting for innovation to make it even greater.

The industry is plodding along, stuck in a ditch of its own making. Revenue is not growing and it isn’t because prices are dropping but more tellingly, and more concerning, because units are declining. Consumers are buying less CE because what they have today serves their needs, and the promise of what we are offering tomorrow is of very little interest to them.

A business like CE needs the early adopters, but it needs the mainstream too and those are the folks who ask us to fulfill the promise of today’s technology before we march onward towards tomorrows. I’ll know we have solved this problem when a reporter calls me around CES and asks not what’s new to sell tomorrow but what we will see that will improve the technology we have today. - The Next Great Thing Is Already Here

As far as we as holders of OBJ have been made aware of to date, we are not 'officially' developing any products for the CE industry, however Procter & Gamble's public statement to the world clearly delivers the same familiar message being echoed by expert consumer analysts around the world today.

"P&G’s partnership with OBJ and our joint commitment of collaboration directly aligns with P&G’s business strategies, working to develop new solutions and innovations that can touch and improve the lives of our consumers all over the world,”

The Company has been working with a number of the teams at P&G’s Cincinnati facility for some time culminating in a funded multi-product development collaboration with the clear objective of taking OBJ’s technologies to market (in P&G products)...

OBJ’s technologies are based of physical performance enhancement rather than chemical, and while this offers our products and patents a new way of approaching problems, the relative performance gains provided by OBJ’s technologies can outstrip anything available through formulation chemistry alone.

This information is all becoming too repetitive, but it still amazes me that our market just can't grasp the inevitable changes facing our world today.

Both GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals in the US and GSK Consumer Healthcare have "grasped" the idea!

The Journal of Pharmaceutical Science "grasped" it!

The "World’s largest Pharmaceutical Company" have "grasped" the idea!

We know at least one of the "Top 5 Global Prestige Cosmetics Companies" in the world "grasped" it!

The Journal of Chromatography have also "grasped" the idea!

A former and current serving Scientific Advisory Board Member for Abbott, Wyeth (Pfizer), Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Merck, Allergan and Roche, has "grasped" it, but one may assume a bias view coming from a current director on the board for OBJ Limited. This would be likened to suggesting that one of the world's leading authorities on Transdermal Drug Delivery, serving on the Advisory Board for OBJ, has also "grasped" the idea, however, bias or not, as with all three of our director's, Prof Benson's position in the companies top 20 spread, backs such a bias view!

Two of the world's top 10 listed innovation leaders also appear to have "grasped" it! 3M chooses to remain a "major collaborator" whilst The Procter & Gamble Company certainly appear to be "grasping" the opportunity with its arms wide open!

The Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology have "grasped" it also!

And we are informed that one of the "Top 10 Global Prestige Skincare Companies" "grasped" the idea!

Early in 2010, the Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science, and former Executive responsible for acquisitions, partnering, licensing and new product innovations for major industry leading giants, including, CB Fleet, PZ Cussons, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, and GSK, also appeared to "grasp" it, with the following public statement;

"True innovation is becoming increasingly rare with regulatory barriers and increasing costs leading to more standardised products. OBJ’s physical rather than chemical approach to product performance enhancement may change the balance in established product categories. Its application in the cosmetic, consumer and healthcare markets may offer similar opportunities to those in the pharmaceutical sector. I see my role with OBJ as an opportunity to be part of a highly committed team focused on delivering sustained growth."

Is The Next Great Thing Is Already Here?

The experts appear to disagree... with 'our' market!