Anton Savage: Take it from me, the iPhone, social media and drones will never catch on

Originally published in the Business Post.

I have great news for the people of Blanchardstown in Dublin, who say they are sick of delivery drones flying over their houses – they need not worry, as a business like that can’t possibly work long-term. Admittedly, I say this as someone with an almost unbroken record of being wrong about which innovations will fail and which will succeed.

My streak began with bottled water. I can clearly remember myself declaring with the callow confidence of youth that there was no way people would pay en masse for something that was piped free into every business and household. The fizzy stuff I could just about accept. But ‘still’? That was never going to catch on.

I was forced to concede defeat pretty quick. But the scale of my miscalculation was only brought home years later when a public health specialist explained to me that the nation was witnessing the first increase in youth tooth decay in decades, thanks primarily to so many families switching away from the fluoridated stuff that emerges – gratis – from the tap.

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