Previous message: "IT revealed: Dean Kamen shows off mystery transportion device" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02867.html
--- Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 11:05:21 -0500 From: "Robin (Roblimo) Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: FC: IT revealed: Dean Kamen shows off mystery transportion device I can predict several immediate markets for Segway/Ginger I doubt that its inventor, Mr. Kamen, has considered: 1) Purse snatching and pocket picking. Imagine gliding though a crowd on your Segway, cutting women's purse straps and men's pockets with a sharp knife, than making your getaway faster than most people can run. 2) Street corner drug dealers. Hear that "Five - OH!" shout, roll up the alley and through the streets faster than the cops can pursue. 3) Xtreme sports. It won't be long before "hot rod kits" are available for Segway. 45 MPH versions will not only sell heavily to illegal users, but will allow the development of a whole new, exciting series of sports. Think roller derby at highway speeds. Whooo! 4) Resales. A $3000 item that can be loaded easily into a car after the lock/chain is cut is going to get stolen like mad. An entire industry is going to grow up around the theft, reprogamming, and resale of these things. We won't mention the havoc bike messengers in place like New York and Washington D.C. are going to create when they get their hands on Segways or the "sidewall rage" Segway riders will inevitably provoke. The Segway is a great idea doomed to failure. - Robin "Roblimo" Miller http://slashdot.org http://newsforge.com http://linux.com http://osdn.com --- From: "rafonda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: IT revealed: Dean Kamen shows off mystery transportion device Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 12:08:58 -0500 Here is my prediction. As soon as they have had time to steal some, the malls will be invaded by fubu purse snatchers swooping down on easy marks and 'scooting' away ... too fast to chase, and too mobile to follow effectivly. They will be a nuisance and menace to pedistrians; they will be ridden into every inappropriate place, and be the biggest pain in the ass you can imagine. RAF --- From: Bill Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: IT revealed: Dean Kamen shows off mystery transportion device To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2001 09:46:52 -0800 At 09:53 AM 12/03/2001 -0500, Declan McCullagh forwarded articles on the Ginger Hype Generation Machine finally being revealed. Boy, what bad timing Kamen has. Not only is it too late for Christmas sales (if in fact the things are shipping anytime soon, as opposed to this being a demo for next Christmas shipping), but overall it's a year or two too late to catch the Razor Scooter fad and the San Francisco geek toys market, where there are some people still commuting on $500 electric scooters (Doug Barnes used to haul one on Caltrain, for instance), but an N-thousand-dollar device that's only usable for short hauls within cities, it'll be a real tough sell. The real question is whether, next year when he's trying to sell quantity, anybody will list to the next round of hype. On the other hand, this announcement is at least timed to keep people from totally forgetting him as more dot-com vaporware, so maybe it's not that bad timing after all. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
