What' an existing product that you came up with first?

Also, collapsible Tupperware was my friends idea since he was a few years old. When he saw it in stores years later it almost killed him.

A question and answer website…. Shit!

I’ve had this happen to me more times than I can count! So much so that I considered a career in product development (if I could figure out how to get that job). The only problem with that is, I’ll get several ideas all at once and then, for months on end…nothing. The main one I can think of right now is “sarcastic ribbon magnets for cars”, you know like: Support Strip Clubs or Support Car Ribbons. When I saw the first one on a car, I felt like crying.

A calander, address, note system that linked online as well. My buddy and i were working on it back in the bulleton board days.

The internet o_O

hehehe the internet

Dammit! When did Al Gore join fluther? And seriously, Al, if you’re going to join, at least use your real name rather than some random user name like Magnus…

craigslist

The Duct Tape Book. My husband and I joked about it for years, and then I saw it in a bookstore.

electric toothbrush

After dealing with scratched record albums I came up with the idea of compact disc players, kind of. Actually, I predicted a record player with a “laser stylus” that would read the grooves on an LP. I figured that you would put your vinyl record on the turntable and close a lid that carried the laser. It wouldn’t have been digital but the analog sound might have sounded close.

AstroChuck, you must be really old. I read about that technology (laserdisk) in Popular Science back in the 1960’s. According to Wikipedia, it was invented in 1958, patented in 1960 and developed by Philips by 1969 and first demonstrated publicly in 1972.

Well, I hadn’t heard about it in the 70s. I was born in ‘61. I guess I was predicting a technology that already existed or at least was being developed.
Did I mention that I invented Post-it notes?

Years ago, a friend and I dreamed up a washing machine that is also a dryer…these actually do exist now, though I have yet to see one in an appliance store. How much easier would laundry be, if you just had 2 of these machines, instead of individual washers & dryers. You could do twice the amount of laundry at a time.

Augustian, do a web search. There seems to be academic sources to guide you on your quest regarding Product Development

@Bronx: Thanks!

Dynamic vibrating car seats. You get the punch of bass without the ear damage. I think it was in sharper image a while back (therefore, a bad idea from the beginning).

I can think of some extremely intriguing uninteresting uses for that.

Individually measured clothing detergent. I used to pre-measure out enough doap and bleach for a single load of laundry and seal each one in a little tupperware container, so that I could take the lid off and throw the whole thing in the water. I was tired of carrying a huge bottle of detergent to the washer when I just needed enough for one load. Now, it’s something you can buy.

Usually when I’m measuring out dope and bleach, I’m cooking up a batch of crack.

ha!

My mom said disposable fake nails would be a good alternative
for people who needed short nails in their everyday line of work.

My brothers, sisters and I all fell out of our chairs laughing at the idea
that people would want to glue fake nails onto their fingertips.

And a whole bunch of others. Will have to think of them though.
Just always remember this example because whenever it came on TV,
our mom would say That could have been [our last name]-Press-On-Nails!

I thought of alcoholic red-bull before they started selling that Sparks stuff

I came up with the big sign you see on the backs of van trailers these days, back when I was riding with my husband over the road. It says, “If you can’t see my mirrors, I can’t see you.”

I must have talked about it on the CB too often. Damnit! Made me cry when I saw it start showing up.

The Internet.

Al Gore.