(Las Vegas) An exhibition of tech duds, including a tweeter-only device or an Apple stereo system, reminds those who dream of greatness at CES in Las Vegas that failure is also a possibility.
Among these glorious failures, we can notably find a skin-colored mask, which is more reminiscent of a horror film, glasses incorporating therapeutic magnets or even a copy of the legendary DeLorean sports car, which never found its position in the automotive market.
“A lot of inventors assume that they are geniuses and that everything they do can only work,” exhibition organizer Narek Vardanyan, also founder of Prelaunch, told AFP. a platform that allows creators to test their product on the market. But “you can squander a lot of money and waste years on it,” he adds.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas opened its doors to the public on Thursday to admire the latest innovations in a context of global economic slowdown.
A sign that chess is not just reserved for backyard hackers, the exhibition notably presents an MP3 player launched by Microsoft, Zune, or Apple’s defunct game console, Pippin.
Every year, nearly 80% of new product launches become commercial failures, most often because creators failed to ensure consumers were willing to spend money on what they were selling, according to Mr Vardanyan.
If the digital giants can afford this type of failure, it can be fatal for a young company that has staked its future on it.
“I think it’s essential to take failure into account, because it’s often about opportunities to learn,” said Brad Holliday, of ID8 Innovation, which advises large companies when launching startup projects. .
“If you can figure out in time that something won’t work, it can save you a lot of money,” he insists.
” Waste of money ”
Mr. Vardanyan’s company, based in Armenia, specializes in verifying the existence of a potential demand for a new product very early in the creation process, he explained.
“For an entrepreneur who dreams of success, such a tool can probably help them not to waste money and time on something that is not reasonable”, considers Mark Harrisson, founder of the collective MH3, which brings together companies in Canada, including communications agencies and non-governmental organizations.
“It’s interesting, you could fill a whole museum,” he adds, as he wanders through the exhibit.
For creative strategy analyst Carolina Milanesi, manufacturers showcasing their novelties this year will be keen to get their product to market quickly.
Given the difficult economic context, startups do not have the five years they could count on until recently to perfect their product and avoid failure, she told AFP.
Today’s startups must “must be able to make money in the near future”, stresses Mme Milanese.