According to a recent MIT study, “teenagers have some seemingly high expectations about what technology might bring over the next decade.” When asked to make specific predictions about the future, 33% of teens predict that gasoline-powered cars will no longer exist within 10 years, compared to 16% of adults. Moreover, 22% of teenagers predict desktop computers will become obsolete by 2015, compared to only 10% of adults.

The real optimism of Generation Y, though, shows when they are asked about global problems such as hunger and disease:

“The teens queried also said new inventions — over any time frame, not necessarily by 2015 — can solve such global problems as unclean water (91%), hunger (89%), disease (88%) and pollution (84%). Adults were less optimistic about hunger, with 77% saying technology will play an important role. Merton Flemings, who heads the Lemelson-MIT program that conducted the survey, said he was encouraged that teenagers believe science and technology may hold answers to our biggest issues.”

The survey did not specifically ask teens about the chances for “world peace,” but one suspects that an overwhelming percentage of Generation Y would also be willing to place a bet on that, too.

[graphic: Albright College]

The conventional wisdom is that Kodak might just become irrelevant if it fails to adapt to the rapid changes occurring in the digital photography market. Well, according to Jack Cheng in a blog post called A Place Called Kodak, we are now witnessing a revitalized Kodak with a lethal innovative first-strike capability:

“There’s been a lot of talk about Kodak’s rebranding in the past few months. The reaction to Kodak Gallery campaign has generally been positive, and recently, news about the company doing away with the yellow/red letter K box (which stayed consistent for 70 years and is THE icon for the era of 35mm film) and replacing it with a more modern (and debatably more generic) version made the rounds on the Web. I love the direction Kodak is taking… but not for the reasons above. It’s where the company is going with its products that makes me buy into the idea that they’re serious about innovation, design, and digital…”

Jack Cheng points to a USA Today article that describes Kodak’s new embrace of design and innovation and, later in the blog post, describes a number of innovative product offerings from Kodak, such as the EasyShare One (the first consumer digital camera with built in Wi-Fi) and the EasyShare V570 Dual Lens camera. Kodak has also announced a deal with Skype to let people voice-chat with friends and family as they share the pics in their photo albums online through the Easy Share Gallery.

Kodak appears to have innovated its way out of a deep, dark strategic hole:

“The bottom line is that the company is building a new lineup of camera products that are like nothing else out there. Where everyone else is merely getting higher-resolution and more compact, Kodak is going beyond that- exploring blue oceans and coming up with new categories of products and services. How long it takes for the other manufacturers to start copying these things is anybody’s guess.”

Technorati tags: Kodak, innovation

Anyone notice Toshiba’s latest print ads? In the Toshiba ads that I’ve seen, the tagline is “Innovation by design… Where can innovation take you?” What’s interesting is that Toshiba is a technology company. So what’s a technology company doing emphasizing “innovation by design” rather than “innovation by technology”? Here’s an idea: sleek, well-designed technology products (e.g. iPods) sell at a premium, and Toshiba is recognizing that fact. By integrating industrial design into the innovation process, Toshiba is hoping to optimize the consumer experience. Anyway, Toshiba is calling its new emphasis on design “360-degree innovation”:

“Toshiba is always striving to make notebooks smaller, thinner, lighter - without compromising functionality. The Portege R200 (pictured) is the latest result of that philosophy. Its sleek chassis is built from materials similar to those used in fighter jets. And starting at 2.68 lbs. and just over half an inch thin, it still has enough battery life to last up to five hours. Portability plus performance. Size plus stamina. That’s 360-degree innovation. That’s Toshiba.”

NOTE: The print ads mention ToshibaByDesign.com. However, if you type that into your Web browser, you will be automatically re-directed to Toshiba’s Innovation 360 site.