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There's a great story in the LA Times about a company which bucked the trends. When everyone was moving to DVD, they brought VHS tapes and still found buyers.

"The last major Hollywood movie to be released on VHS was "A History of Violence" in 2006. By that point major retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart were already well on their way to evicting all the VHS tapes from their shelves so the valuable real estate could go to the sleeker and smaller DVDs and, in more recent seasons, the latest upstart, Blu-ray discs. Kugler ended up buying back as much VHS inventory as he could from retailers, distributors and studios; he then sold more than 4 million VHS videotapes over the last two years.

Those tapes went to bargain-basement chains such as Dollar Tree, Dollar General and Family Dollar, and Kugler's network of mom-and-pop clients and regional outlets, such as the Gabriel Bros. Stores in West Virginia or the Five Below chain in Pennsylvania."

Proof is ever we needed it, that trends take some time to die and that it takes a long time for technology to fully saturate.

While we all crave the new, remember there are many that can't access it.


Posted by Ed Cotton For years video games and their makers have been dismissed by many as irrelevant, child's play.

The industry has carved out an impressive place in the entertainment space, but never seems to get the love or respect it feels it deserves.

With computing power advancing at a rapid rate and consoles being at the forefront of this, we are now starting to see games and the gaming industry being taken seriously.

One of the first examples was Folding@Home on the PS3, which allows console owners to band together to help medical science.

The latest manifestation is the amazing collaboration between Citroen and Polyphony Digital, the makers of the hit driving simulation game, Gran Turismo.

The Citroen GT unveiled at last week's Paris Auto Show was created in Polyphony's computers and then rendered into a live concept at Citroen.



The car therefore has been designed to perfection for both the real and virtual/digital worlds.




Posted by Ed Cotton Technology is about to take another leap forward and the static Powerpoint presentations of old are about to be replaced by something entirely new and a lot more dynamic. Welcome to the world of The Minority Report, where we will be able to interact directly with a presentation materials and manipulate them in real time using our hands. It will interesting to see which agencies make the technological leap forward and start using this for client and pitch presentations.




Posted by Ed Cotton nike-entering a new era? (40.01078714046552 , 116.54296875) Nike is a brand that was built on the back of raw emotion of sports, but is it about to change?

Are product performance and technological innovation going to be the drivers from now on?

Take a look at the amazing exhibition the brand is putting on in Beijing that celebrates the 100 most important innovations in the company's history.

In the past, the company has been reluctant to let technology dominate the story, but in this show, it's the star.

Perhaps, the brand feels it needs to demonstrate the substance that lies at the heart of the company and put fear into anyone, especially the smaller Chinese upstarts, that Nike's success isn't something that can be easily copied.


Posted by Ed Cotton Nice piece from The Economist that follows the life of Nokia's Jan Chipchase (see our previous post)

It's a film that uses photos and a phone recording.

Jan offers his observations on technology in his work life and life in general.



Posted by Ed Cotton Core 77 has a great podcast on the new MOMA exhibition "Design and the Elastic Mind".

It features a few interviews from the opening night and a longer sit down discussion with famed curator Paola Antonelli.

The interview is Paola is especially good, as she talks about the idea behind the exhibit, the process of curating and highlights some of MOMA's future plans for bringing a Boeing 747 into the collection.

My big take-away from the broadcast is the emergence of two interesting forces that are now shaping contemporary design thinking.

1. The shift from the decorative to the serious- designers are no longer content creating beautiful objects- they want to have an impact. Design and the Elastic Mind is all about the intersection between science/technology and design.

2. The idea of "beta" is now present in the design world- work in progress is good and objects no longer need to be finished to be presented.


Posted by Ed Cotton