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Comment by a1371 | Hacker News Reader

I think this alternative is more reasonable. Those who think China is just a copying machine, underestimate the influence the Chinese engineers had in the landscape of many industries. The hoverboards (the type with wheels) became a household product thanks to them.

Conceptualization is not making something actually happen, unlike what the patent-trolls want us to believe. IoT was first proposed in the 90s, but did it gain any traction before cheap Chinese prototyping components? This bares the question, is it the West that has made IoT or the East?

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I think it's funny that you chose hover boards. I haven't seen one in use in any major US city I've visited this year. I'm sure some people still use them, but thanks to terrible Chinese engineering that caused fires and failures, I don't know anyone that's bought one after the first couple of months that they were a fad.

Apart from the product failure, I think we have all heard the stories of people having those as christmas gifts and ending up in ER for injuries on the same day.

That could have been overshadowed if they could satisfy a niche. They are neither useful for going to work nor Indy Grabbing. Let's just hope next time the trend turns toward something like that it solves a problem.

Chinese engineers didn't make the hoverboard. If anything the hoverboard example disproves your example as they just copied the hoverboard from foreign companies.

I know what you're point seems to be even though you aren't communicating it very well. I do think you're missing the fact that producing goods cheaply does not make you a leader in tech. Besides quick fads like hoverboards or fidget spinners China does not have much traction with actually producing and selling products. Things might be made in China but they are designed by foreign companies and the vast majority of the profit leaves the country.

Have you heard about a certain drone manufacturer, DJI?

I'm certainly not saying that there aren't actual Chinese products that are selling. It's just not the norm. DJI is a great company but not indicative of the general ecosystem of China.

You are right that today DJI is exceptional and represents the cutting edge - but that in itself is indicative of what is normal in the future.

There are a lot of Chinese companies that are doing amazing things that many of us in the West have not heard of. Have you heard of Broad?

I doubt anybody will ever see this response, but about the Hoverboard, here it is:

Hoverboards are originally from China [1] however, most of us have likely learned about them from Kickstarter etc. I think the users of HN would agree that "invention is never a sudden thing". The process for hoverboards has been iterative, of course. I have heard claims of having commercial hoverboards as much as five years before they became household names in the US.

[1] https://youtu.be/SGJ5cZnoodY?t=33m52s

Hover boards are a poor knockoff of a segway. There was even a stickless version hacked up by someone in the US a few weeks after the Segway's release. This dates back to patents filed in 1994.

Actually the video confirms that the hoverboard was created by a Chinese American, living in Seattle, who also patented it. The Chinese versions even look identical to the patent filing.

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