Innovate or imitate?

It's always somewhat dangerous for me to get into environments like this because there's a high chance of seeing something that I want...and will then convince myself I need which means there's a strong chance I'll spend some money I hadn't planned on spending. You'd think I'd know better and there I was at a big four wheel drive show looking at things I want need...ok, want not need...until I convince myself I need them!

I went because I like to keep apprised of the latest stuff coming onto the market and these four wheel drive shows (four wheel drive and boating) gather all the latest things in the one place so it's easy to cover everything in only a few hours far too many fucken hours of browsing and chatting. I also know a heap of people in the industry so it's a good chance to shoot some shit as well.

I'd like to say I found a whole lot of new stuff I found super-interesting but that's not the case; there were a few items I'd been particularly keen to see but mostly I found slightly modified or improved versions of things that have been around for a long time. Sure, improvements made them look different and there was a change here or there but mostly it was a whole lot of stuff that is the same as the stuff from ten years ago and more. It was a bit disappointing, but predictable.

Consumers don't get a whole lot for their money these days, certainly not a lot more than they had in the past, but they pay a lot more for it and it's the same in any industry, just slightly modified versions of the existing all released to the market in a clear manner to build an eager want from the consumer.

An example? Take vehicle spotlights for instance.

I had a set by ARB Corporation called, Intensity AR32, on one of my trucks which cost me $1,300 back in 2016. They were super bright, in fact far too bright most of the time, but did a reasonable job; their brightness and penetration was the unique selling point (USP).

I sold the vehicle a little later and purchased my new one and put on ARB's new version, Intensity Solis, the same but with the addition of the ability to dim them from 5% to 100% of their output. That dealt with the fact the previous ones (still sold) were too bright as I could select the intensity needed for each situation but I had to pay a lot more, almost $2,000 for two of them. Now there's the Intensity IQ - the same but with four separate areas of light output: super spot, spot, flood and midrange. The cost? Way more again. For the record, I'll not be buying those Intensity IQ lights, I can't warrant the cost of about $2,400.

It's the same with mobile phones. They bring out a new model and what does it have? A faster processor, more AI and a larger megapixel camera - big fucken deal. The cost? Fucken way larger too. I can't wait until they bring one out with a ten billion megapixel camera, I'll be able to take photos of fucken Pluto although I'll need ten billion dollars to by the thing in the first place I guess! Dumbasses.

I saw a lot of products that are redesigned iterations of what exists already, different colours, shapes, sizes and with different brand names and it left me wondering where the innovation has gone. Having said that, there was some cool things around the place here and there although nothing totally new or anything that called out loudly enough to make me buy it.