Pizza Tail
Last year, Eric Chan, our lead designer, came up with this diagram (left) to help visualize what the market opportunity was for Bug Labs. We loved it so much it’s now part of almost any discussion we have on the topic. While I didn’t realize it at the time, it’s really a reinterpretation of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail graph. But being New Yorkers we were more comfortable with it looking like a pizza.
What does it depict? What sort of things are actually in that shaded area? Basically, it’s everything you can’t buy in your neighborhood BestBuy, Circuit City or Radio Shack. It’s all the devices that have never been built because the potential market can not be measured in hundreds of thousands or millions. It’s all the devices that currently cost thousands of dollars because their target market is so small (or choice is limited, e.g. medical, education, government). It’s all the devices that are over-priced because they’re built on closed, proprietary architectures. In essence, it’s pure potential.
I admit that this diagram is (shamelessly) self-serving in that it equates ALL the shaded area to BUG but of course that’s not the case. All sorts of companies, organizations and individuals will (and do) live in that area. The whole DIY movement resides there and we are proud to consider ourselves part of it. And it’s growing! Eric Von Hippel, whose book "Democratizing Innovation", which I can’t recommend highly enough, gives a terrific interview on the BBC where he discusses his thoughts on it all.
Home Depot became what it is now ($81 billion in sales – yes, that’s billions) by actually living its tag line "You can do it. We can help", everyday. In essence, HD is a platform for home improvement. And platforms are great because they have such huge leverage. People can use them to do all sorts of things. I love the HD tag line (and their stores) because it represents what I believe is an attitude that is filtering into all walks of life. DIY, which for many years has been caged in what feels like an old-fashioned, homespun aura, is reemerging as a true democratic movement. Power to the people is sounding tres chic.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:15 am
Let me first say that this is a very interesting idea, and I’m looking forward to your eventual launch. I’m looking forward to it because I want to see what devices I can dream up and create using BUG.
I saw that an accelerometer is part of the BUG module. I’ve been casually doing research on building a pedometer of my own, and was wondering if this is something I can build from BUG?
August 17th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
[...] There are three things that make us huge fans of Austin, Texas here at Bug Labs: the growing tech scene, the endless BBQs, and South by Southwest (or SXSW, as the kids call it). And thanks to you in the BUGcommunity, you helped us go to our very first SXSW last year, where we presented a session on hardware mashups and the now-legendary “Pizza Tail.” [...]