Today the US Auto industry proved once again that they have a complete lack of new ideas. This week is of course the North American International Auto Show, a chance for all of the auto companies to give us a taste of the new models and concepts coming out in the next couple of years. This year with coasts soaring and losses pilling up many were hoping that the big three would introduce innovative new models that will help them better compete with the flood of Asian and European imports containing updated designs and the latest features.

Rather than taking a bold step forward the US automakers took a step backward, to the 1970’s to be exact. Following in Ford’s lead Chevy and Dodge are releasing muscle cars that look very similar to the models released during the hey day of American manufacturing. I would love to sit in the decision making meetings at the American Auto Companies, who approves these designs, who actually thinks they will be well accepted by the public?

Quick, if you were forced to purchase an American car today what would you buy? Interesting thought isn’t it? For companies losing billions of dollars the lack of innovation is spellbinding, imagine what would happen to a tech firm if they relied on this type of thinking (No Microsoft Jokes). If the US Auto industry is serious about competing they had better figure out a way to breathe new life into their design teams as well as taking a serious look at their decision making structure. In business today innovation is key, and though old school is hip these cars are not going to do anything but leave the big three languishing further and further behind the competition.

There’s a good post on TechCrunch about this whole “beta” fad that companies are partaking in to release web applications. It talks about the balance between making your site public too early and keeping it under wraps too long and going to market too late in the game.

It seems that when you distill the “beta” fad down to its elements, the purpose of it is purely for marketing. I doubt that any public beta has really benefited more from being public than private in terms of adding functionality and fixing bugs. A properly run private beta can be just as useful. But as far as marketing goes, TechCrunch provides some great pointers on how to use this marketing strategy.

The one thing I would add to this list is to write software for yourself. Create an application that you will use and then use it. You are your own best critic. If you don’t like it or don’t think it’s useful, then there’s a good chance that other people are going to feel the same way.