While
Internet and software startups are getting most of the attention, a top
hardware designer claims that the money is to be made coming up with new
hardware.
Gadi Amit, the founder and principal designer of NewDealDesign,
which has come up with things like the Sling Box, said that the idea that
software was the only place to go for new entrepreneurs was
bogus. Writing in
Venturebeat he said that software and web markets are so filled with dominant
players that they are actually relatively difficult to break
into.
Standard category leaders control 60 percent of the market. Runners-up
to those leaders are left with 30 percent. And the crumbs are fought
over by others in the category. But hardware products will have lots of
competition and a wide market. The consumer market is wide open for new
hardware ideas. Amit said that the manufacturing industry has grown in China
and become more readily accessible to entrepreneurs. If you have a completed
design, the manufacturers and component suppliers there are ready to
help you begin building.
The recent rise of netbooks is a good example of
how new ideas in hardware can make a buck while the other areas of the
market are struggling.