DESPITE predictions to the contrary, Microsoft's new operating system is outselling its hyperbolically ballyhooed predecessor. Windows 95 sold 620,000 copies during its first six days on the market; Windows 98 sold 627,000. Mr. Edison,
meet Mr. GatesConsidering its modest benefits, like a 1955 Chevy's compared to a 1954's, Bill Gates, must be pleased. The world's richest man remains on track to become ever richer. Microsoft stock this week hit new all-time highs.
The Gates phenomenon has a precedent. In the 1879, Thomas Edison made a few improvements in the incandescent light bulb, invented already by England's Joseph Swan, and set out to electrify the world -- literally.
We remember Edison as an inventor, but his real genius was buying good ideas or the companies that owned them, making them work together as a commercially viable product and marketing the complete package, ruthlessly.
Edison didn't just sell light bulbs. The Edison companies provided entire systems -- generators, transformers, power lines, electric meters and lamps. They merged with or gobbled up competitors. By the mid-1880s, he had "perfected or patented" more than 200 pieces of lighting equipment -- everything but a web browser, apparently.
"Always keep on the lookout for novel ideas that others have used successfully," Edison said. "Your idea has to be original, only in its adaptation to the problem you're working on." Tell it to Netscape and Apple Computer.
John Flanagan is editor and publisher of the Star-Bulletin.
To reach him call 525-8612, fax to 523-8509, send
e-mail to publisher@starbulletin.com or write to
P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802.