What Does Clay Shirky Mean About the Auto Industry?
October 29th, 2008, 9 Comments »
In a comment earlier today, Duncan referenced a New York Times article about recent cuts and closures in the publishing industry. It includes a quote from big-brained thinker Clay Shirky:
Historically, people took an interest in the daily paper about the time they bought a home. Now they are checking their BlackBerrys for alerts about mortgage rates.
“The auto industry and the print industry have essentially the same problem,” said Clay Shirky, the author of “Here Comes Everybody.” “The older customers like the older products and the new customers like the new ones.”
I know very little about the auto industry. What sort of products–that is, what kind of vehicles–do the auto industry’s new customers want?