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Innovation as an art of seduction 

Women are attracted to good piano players. So they say. And it's probably true. Pianists are more successful seducers because their seductiveness is secondary - it happens while they're completely lost in their music. They playfully arouse dreams and yearnings in a woman that she herself was not even aware of. And that's why she loves the pianist: he gives voice to her hidden desires.

Let's get to the point. INNOVATION. Everybody's talking about it. At least in the telecommunications sector. It's a sector that always has to offer something new, otherwise people would just stick with their old handsets, which still work perfectly well, after all. This means that business only flourishes thanks to innovations, which aren't really all that new yet still seduce customers to buy. How's it done? Ideally, like a pianist: arousing desires, appealing to yearnings. Innovation as an art of seduction. Nobody can be seduced who isn't secretly waiting to be.

Take the iPhone, for example. Pragmatists say it can't do anything that couldn't be done before, albeit on different devices that each offered a more satisfying version of these functions. Smartphone has long offered the option of receiving and replying to e-mails while on the go. And if you want to access the Internet, you can just hook up your laptop to your mobile phone and go online, and so on and so forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's not the point. Of course this little miracle machine has to be practical, not just a telephone, but also an iPod, an Internet browser, a photo album and a weather forecaster. But it's never just about what's useful - we've already got all these things. What we need now, if we even need anything new at all, is something clever, lavish and sensuously appealing. Like the iPhone - with an interface so beautiful and intelligent that it almost hurts to refer to it as a "user interface". This interface transforms the user into a friend, a lover. And rather than having keys, it has a skin begging to be caressed and, if you caress it, nearly every wish will be granted.

Those with innovative minds know people, not just technology. They know what people secretly yearn for. People are not nearly as rational or economical as they like to think. They are more a mixed bag of longings, insatiably romantic beneath their cool exterior, always waiting for something incredible, something that will satisfy their desires.

The iPhone plays with these feelings. A symbiosis of toy and tool, it satisfies all professional needs. And always offers just that little bit more. It lulls its user into the probably incorrect yet comforting belief that life is just one big romp in the park. Turn the music down when the boss calls and then, once the conversation is over, pick up where you left off. Duty simply becomes a minor interruption in the wave of entertainment and wellbeing. It's not a necessity, but it is oh so very seductive. Nearly like piano playing. It catches us dreaming of an easier life.

Ludwig Hasler