Now that was a decade! Ten years ago we wore analog watches, had landline phones, hung out in bookstores, and even hailed taxis, we are reminded by The Wall Street Journal (Dec. 30, 2019). Ah, the good old days. (Mind you, TV remote controls are only a few decades older).
In 2009 Apple started selling the iPhone 3GS. For $199, it had a 3½-inch screen with a 480-by-320 display—less than half the resolution of a 20th-century TV set. The hot feature was a “built-in digital compass.” In 2019 the $999 iPhone 11 Pro has a 5.8-inch screen and a 2,436-by-1,125 display. It features 30,000 infrared probes that can read your face.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which we feature in the Global Company Profile in Chapter 2, can fly nonstop from just about anywhere to anywhere. Streaming radically changed how cable companies and studios deal with customers. Almost all of Netflix’s growth in streaming movies took place in the past 10 years. The Brookings Institution projects that advances in logistics and food distribution have reduced poverty in most of the world—from 550 million poor outside Africa in 2009 to fewer than 100 million today.
Epitomizing the 2010s is the glucose monitor that reads from a patch with a small sensor stuck under your skin and update a smartphone app. The app also lets caregivers follow patients’ readings, replacing finger pricks, pens and phone calls—all to the benefit of the 30 million Americans who suffer from diabetes.
This decade has proved that progress is relentless. Expect it, even though we should never take it for granted. Property rights, an educated workforce, fair tax codes that enable capital formation, and light-touch regulations are essential ingredients. It’s why the U.S., not China, has driven global innovation (again) in the 2010s.
Classroom discussion questions:
- Referring to Figure 2.5 in your Heizer/Render/Munson text, where do you think the following products will be on the product life cycle curve in 2029: iPhone 11, Boeing 787, glucose monitor?
- Where will the products shown in that figure be in 2029?