Yet basic home products remain in a technological backwater state.
Mopping may not be new or sexy, but it has huge potential for technological innovation, not to mention a ready-made audience.
I'd venture that more households own a mop -- and would spring for a new and improved one -- than a computer.
Mops and brooms are a US$450 million market, according to Information Resources Inc. The profit margins on the Swiffer Wet replacement cloths and Swiffer WetJet are high, Matthews tells me.
P&G derived 30 percent of its sales and 37 percent of its profit from household cleaning products in the fiscal year ended June 2001.
Moore's Law -- the idea that the performance of semiconductor chips doubles every 18 months -- may be the operative philosophy in the high-tech arena.
Wouldn't it be nice if there were a Swiffer protocol?
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