Scott Clavenna
Looking for Mr. Killer Amp February 12, 2008 at 1:20 PM
Killer Amp. We heard it used last week at the MIT Innovation thing and I had to laugh. First, I thought of one of the Orange Tiny Terrors they sell downstairs from us at Nitro Tone. But no, this isn’t a 15W box to give your telecaster that old-school tube tone, it’s a play on the term killer app, used ad nauseam in the communications industry to represent the newest, sexiest application that will drive yet another wave of network infrastructure investment and drive wealth into a market pathologically afraid of commoditization.
Killer app #1: Email. Huge, and it made the Internet a real communications medium and drove it into the mass market.
Killer app #2: E-commerce. Internet bubble! But, bubble aside, the Internet went from an R&D network to a real robust, secure infrastructure for all new services to come. And generated billions in corporate and personal wealth.
Killer app #3: Video. YouTube. enough said.
Killer app #4: MySpace. yuck, but yeah, it’s a killer app.
So now the greentech industry has caught onto the idea, like this: if only there were a killer amp out there to drive investment, entrepreneurship, and success into the energy market, all things renewable, efficient and green would flourish.
But really, that’s not going to happen. Think about it. A killer app is an application that demands something new from a network. It’s a pull, not a push. Broadband Internet meant AT&T and its brethren had to invest billions in their networks to bring DSL to your home and optical networks to the backbone to support all that traffic. Cellphones, too. Mobility has to be one of the biggest killer apps of all, culminating in iphones and blackberrys becoming nearly ubiquitous, and requiring a huge investment in networks, devices and management software. And along the way, operators like Vodafone, Verizon and Orange made a LOT OF MONEY.
It was not so long ago that an individual’s communications bill was around $30 a month. They had a phone, and were billed separately for local and long distance. Then came cable TV, cellphones, Internet dial-up, broadband Internet, web services and today a combined communications bill of $500/month for a household is not at all uncommon. The apps indeed were killers.
Is there any equivalent in the energy industry? Is there something we’re all about to consume on a massive scale that can inspire utilities to rebuild their grids and embrace renewables? Is demand response a killer amp? No way. Will electric cars some day rival the iphone for top envy-driven consumer purchase? Until twelve year olds can get a driver’s license, probably not.
So, really, there’s only one killer amp that stands a chance of making a difference. You’ll find it here.
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