What to do with an idea for a new product?

[vurt]

Whats the most annoying thing about a synth?

The power switch is always on the back!

Weve all spent countless hours, that could be used more productivly, fumbling blindly trying to find the switch.

Lets petition a new standard

It needs a catchy moniker to capture the public's imagination:

Power Switch On Front of Synth

You'd be hitting that power switch accidentally all the time if it was on front. I believe you're not fingering the butt of your synths without any reason all the time?

that's a bit of a personal question

[fluffy_little_something]

The bulky power supply is at the back, that's why the switch is there, just like with the computer.

[fluffy_little_something]

I'm an electrical/computer engineer, and have turned several hardware ideas into licensed revenue-earning streams. Every week I have a student (I'm a professor) ask a variant of the question "how can I earn money from this idea?" hoping that they can license rights to an existing, large company in return for a revenue percentage since I've done it before.

Although theoretically possible, without a prototype, it is extremely unlikely. Large companies have their own ideas for new products, which come from engineering, management, and sales. These ideas (for a large company, we're talking 100's a year) go into a hopper from which management selects the best few to be prototyped (perhaps 10's per year), which typically costs between 10k and 100k USD, depending on the complexity. Then marketing/sales works with management to determine which of these prototypes will do best in the market, perhaps one a year. This prototype goes through re-engineering for production, which costs perhaps 100k-200k depending on complexity, and then the first production run is made.

So the problem is convincing a company to consider your ideas among the 100's it produces internally, when yours comes burdened with IP (patent) considerations. If you can visit them with a hardware prototype, they'll take the idea more seriously, and then you are only competing against perhaps a dozen others instead of 100's.

The process is definitely possible, if you're willing to put in the time & effort, but is not for the faint of heart. The steps are, roughly, protecting your IP with a provisional patent (no reason to pay the big bucks for a full utility patent at this stage), hiring an engineer to get to the prototype stage, and then hiring someone with negotiating savvy to approach the large companies for a license deal.

Thanks for your inside knowledge. Seems I will have to shelve my idea because I am in no position to produce a prototype

[VariKusBrainZ]

The bulky power supply is at the back, that's why the switch is there, just like with the computer.

Well, let's see who has the last laugh when I'm a millionaire, I'm in all the synth history books and you're still trying to market your anti callus gloves for synth players

[deastman]

Is your idea a men’s cologne that smells like the beach?

[BertKoor]

Seems I will have to shelve my idea because I am in no position to produce a prototype

So either you take it with you into your grave, or you share your brilliant idea with the rest of the world and hope it gets implemented nevertheless.

[Tj Shredder]

There is a reason why an idea is not patentable!
The work and effort which is necessary to even create a prototype is what later earns the money. Not the idea! I have 1000 ideas, every day my brain is inventing several of them. Without putting work into them they are worthless...
Why the hell is in seemingly all human brains this idea of making money without effort?
Those who do are usually thefts. (Investment bankers to mention an example)
The only problem you face, assuming the idea is good, is, that someone else has the same idea. This is likely if the idea is good! Then you have to be fast.
If you put your idea aside and nothing happens, the idea is most likely not as good as you think it is, and also a proof for a bad idea, because you, yourself does not seem to need it! (Or you would be happy someone would implement it)
If you want your idea being transformed into reality, just tell it, or get into the maker scene to learn how to do it yourself. Its unlikely that someone will steal it anyway...

[fluffy_little_something]

I don't agree with your negative view.
To the contrary, good ideas are the key, technical implementation is easy, just a matter of resources, especially money. But without ideas there is nothing to implement in the first place.
The idea that if an idea is good, several people must have it simultaneously is also weird.

That's just a general remark btw., I am not saying my idea is great, I can't really tell.

[vurt]

is it oyster whistles?

[Tj Shredder]

I don't agree with your negative view.
To the contrary, good ideas are the key, technical implementation is easy, just a matter of resources, especially money. But without ideas there is nothing to implement in the first place.
The idea that if an idea is good, several people must have it simultaneously is also weird.

I didn‘t know my view was negative...; - )
Several people having the same idea is throughout the history of inventions quite common (study it!) especially for important ones... (light bulb, radio for example - also examples for really not so easy technical implementation)

I can't really tell.

If you don‘t, the idea has no chance...
If you don‘t, the idea might not be that important either...

If you do, someone might think its worth it and implement it. As she has all the work assosiated with it its fair for him to collect the profit. If its a huge one she might share it according to the individual work which had been put in. Yours would be half a minute to write it down and publish it... His could be half a year full time...

I can have a brilliant idea for a musical motiv like g g g e-flat. That does not make a fifth symphony...

[fluffy_little_something]

Light bulb etc. was a very major invention, no wonder several people were working on electrical light at the same time.
Today innovations are usually much more minor and subtle.
Of course my idea is not important, nothing in this whole bloated music industry is important. It is just gear for the spoiled, bored, wealthy people of the world who don't have more urgent things to spend their money on, like food.

[vurt]

It is just gear for the spoiled, bored, wealthy people of the world who don't have more urgent things to spend their money on, like food.

:monocle guy:

[fluffy_little_something]

What does that mean?

[vurt]

im glaring at you!

[Gamma-UT]

I don't agree with your negative view.
To the contrary, good ideas are the key, technical implementation is easy, just a matter of resources, especially money. But without ideas there is nothing to implement in the first place.

I've got a cracking idea for a time machine made out of wool and a picture of Tom Baker. Getting it made should be a doddle, right?

And, no stealing my idea.