Where are the world's most innovative companies and what do they do?
Patents ... quality vs. quantitity
I have been harping on about this for quite a while - two years to be precise … to my students and also to some friends at Microsoft and Dell. Most of them don't believe me.
Here you go … here is some more ammunition from a physicist and a Dean of Engineering in the WSJ.
H/T Pei Win (MPA)
"Perhaps the Internet is just not as revolutionary as we think it is. Sure, people might derive endless pleasure from it—its tendency to improve people's quality of life is undeniable. And sure, it might have revolutionized how we find, buy, and sell goods and services. But that still does not necessarily mean it is as transformative of an economy as, say, railroads were.
That is in part because the Internet and computers tend to push costs toward zero, and have the capacity to reduce the need for labor. You are, of course, currently reading this article for free on a Web site supported not by subscriptions, but by advertising. You probably read a lot of news articles online, every day, and you probably pay nothing for them. Because of the decline in subscriptions, increased competition for advertising dollars, and other Web-driven dynamics, journalism profits and employment have dwindled in the past decade. (That Cowen writes a freely distributed blog and published his ideas in a $4 e-book rather than a $25 glossy airport hardcover should not go unnoted here.) Moreover, the Web- and computer-dependent technology sector itself does not employ that many people. And it does not look set to add workers: The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that employment in information technology, for instance, will be lower in 2018 than it was in 1998.
That the Internet has not produced an economic boom might be hard to believe, Cowen admits. "We have a collective historical memory that technological progress brings a big and predictable stream of revenue growth across most of the economy," he writes. "When it comes to the web, those assumptions are turning out to be wrong or misleading. The revenue-intensive sectors of our economy have been slowing down and the big technological gains are coming in revenue-deficient sectors.""
WIPO has released its 2010 tally of patent applications. Year-on-year change from 2009:
- China: + 56.2% (now ranks #4))
- Rep of Korea: + 20.5%
- Japan: + 7.9%
- "Six out of the top 10 applicants are from East Asia. In addition to the Chinese two, three are from Japan and one is from South Korea."
- India is not in the top 15, but has experienced a 15% increase (albeit from a low base)
- Most Western countries have continued their downward trend, including the US (which is nonetheless #1)
- sezflom