Learning Not to Reinvent the Wheel

Learning Not to Reinvent the Wheel

If you didn’t know, most of my career has been in the wireless industry, where I worked closely with Apple, even at Cupertino the day Steve Jobs died. Apple is truly an extraordinary company. Unlike most cellular companies led by electrical engineers, Apple is driven by industrial designers. Their genius lies in taking off-the-shelf technology and wrapping it in a stunning user interface. Take the iPhone, for example. There’s nothing revolutionary about its battery, cellular chipsets, antenna, or display. What sets Apple apart is the seamless user interface and the integration into a broader ecosystem.

From the beginning, my goal was never to reinvent the wheel like Apple. Although I have experience developing GPS receivers, creating another one was not something I wanted to pursue—Trimble does a great job with that. When we wanted to monitor pivot locations, mounting a GPS receiver with a Wi-Fi link seemed like the natural solution. But then I noticed every farmer was pulling out their phone and using the AgSense app. It turns out AgSense, from Valley Irrigation, offers an API, and we signed an API agreement with them.

In our next release, you’ll be able to see your pivots right on your fields. We’ll even notify you if they are not parked in the proper location or if somebody inadvertently starts them. You can thank our propeller heads for not reinventing the wheel.

 

– Craig

 

 

 

 

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