[heja2009]

I really like your proposal and as you said, it is perfectly in line with creative ethics. However it would not work for the part of innovation that is further away from end-products and their appearance. Sometimes it is worth a lot to produce something cheaper by improving the production process. And that may mainly just mean lower prices. By the way it seems to me that the hugely increased role of design - such as UX design - is now also reflected in shifting the economic battles from hardcore technology to something more "superficial". And I'm using that word neutrally.

[thomasf1]

Yea, I´m coming from the creative side... And great companies always had attention for detail (or for more more "superficial" stuff if you want to put it that way). The success of that companies (Apple being one of them) clearly inspired other companies to try harder.

What do you do? I guess more research? If there is something like that in software...

And how would you approach the patent system?