Having lived in here for nearly 10 years now I’ve suddenly realised that Britain has little or no innovative and forward thinking technology companies to call its own. I cannot for the life of me actually think of any technology, internet or software companies in Britain that have produced anything worth mention. No Googles, no Ciscos, no Apples, no Microsofts, no Palms, no RIMs, not even an geographical hotbed of innovation such as silicon valley/alley/coast… nothing. How can the country that spear-headed the industrial revolution be so far behind in the information revolution?

The QUE proReader or an empty promise

Let’s start off with a recent offering by British based Plastic Logic. They’re offering an eReader called QUE proReader which debuted at the CES conference in Las Vegas. Plastic Logic apparently spent $200 million and 10 years developing this product. Both are numbers that are supposed to impress but to me, it just means that they’ve wasted a lot of time and money. The iPhone, in contrast, took about 4 years. It’s a lame horse and my gut instinct says it won’t succeed, that’s $200 million wasted. Let me tell you why.

The QUE proReader is not yet available though it’s potentially shipping in April 2010. Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are already out the door and in the hands of consumers.  As far as price point is concerned the basic model is going to retail for approximately £407 for the basic and £501 for the deluxe model. In comparison Amazon’s highest spec and comparable model of eReader, the Kindle DX, retails for £306.  Making the QUE proReader £200 more for pretty much the same thing. Granted QUE looks sexier than the competitors and is marketed as being document sized but in reality has an 10.5 inch diagonal screen which is less than an inch larger than the nearest and cheaper rival. Aimed at business people, or essentially folks that would buy on corporate accounts which are usually deeper than the average consumer. So they’ve shot themselves in the foot in regards to widespread adoption. Their marketing also points out the fact that the screen is a plastic display and therefore lighter than glass-based screens. Despite this the unit still outweighs the heaviest of the other devices by 6 oz. There is no mention as to how how this fairly basic document reader is any better than a full-featured colour laptop with a larger screen that you could pick up for £399.

My next British offering, if you can call it that, is a company called Zumba that’s creating a phone called the Zumbafone. Nearly a year has past since the BBC reported on this ‘top-secret’ phone destined to revolutionise our lives and has yet to do any such thing. The website has been moth-balled for a year now with no updates and seems to have attracted little or no attention since it’s ‘debut’. The video on the BBC website shows a Hereford industrial estate factory producing products that look nothing like the phone. The phone itself sounds like it has some innovative features such as built in hands free use, network based data storage and low-cost calls. That’s all fine and dandy when you’ve not actually delivered anything resembling a physical product. My trusty gut instinct again tells me that this product will evaporate into the ether.

Finally, I’d like to report on another British company that I consulted for several years ago, 2003-4 to be exact. Mapminder was a great company with an innovative product and capable technological know-how.  It’s worth noting that this was before Google really muscled into maps and integrating them with user generated content. Mapminder dealt in nicely rendered interactive maps displaying of points of interest including restaurants, local lettings, theatres and the like under the premise of allowing you to look at a map and discover what was nearby your current location. There was a set of tools allowing you to directly gauge distances between point A and B, mobile phone tracking services allowing you to keep tabs on your workforce or loved ones and a whole lot more. My job was to increase their user base which seemed a doddle with such a powerful product.  The problem was that they refused, despite repeated requests, to allow anyone to use the service or even try it out without first paying for it.  Startup 101, build a product that people need, give it away for free, then work out a way to monetise. They closed their doors in 2005.

So it goes. Three stories of the British information age that will have little impact in the grand scheme of things. None are poised to become household names. None have or will cause much of a stir and they’re all a bit cack-handed in their inception and execution. This lack of technological prowess can only be blamed on the government as there are a lot of smart people in Britain.

Britain ranks 41st in broadband speed tests behind Lithuania, Latvia and Bulgaria according to speedtest.net. For a densely packed island I’d say that’s a failure to invest in the necessary infrastructure. Furthermore the recent British Digital Economy Bill introduces legislation that is actually hostile towards an open-internet and leaves out any mention of increasing broadband speed or adoption whereas the US has taken the opposite approach in enshrining a free and open internet. The next election appears like it will be fought on the straw-man of immigration as opposed to actually dealing with an economy that was hit worse and rebounded more slowly than the rest of the world.

Britain has come a long way from Vanity Fair’s March 1997 ‘Cool Britannia’ issue when it seemed that the country was poised at the apex of modern thinking and sensibility. Unfortunately it seems to be moving in the wrong direction. Maybe 10 years is long enough.