1 厨房造酒

A winery for your kitchenA winery? In your kitchen? If that sounds like a pitch from a late-night infomercial, then imagine the obstacles Greg Snell had to overcome to get his 10-person startup off the ground. Snell is CEO of Provina, the San Jose-based company behind an elegant new product called the WinePod. A digitally networked, 4-foot-tall machine that ferments, presses, and ages wine in one self-contained device, the $3,500 WinePod can produce varietals in batches of up to 60 bottles, controlling temperature via a wireless connection to the owner’s personal computer. Wine experts who’ve tried the first batch from a WinePod–a light pinot noir–give it a thumbs-up, but to get upscale oenophiles to take him seriously, Snell tapped product designer Loren Sterling to create a brushed-stainless-steel and white-oak cask that looks right at home next to a Viking range.

PRODUCT WinePod

MANUFACTURER Provina

DESIGNER Sterling Design

BOTTOM LINE Sold out an initial production run of 25 units in 2006 and landed deals with Neiman Marcus and other high-end retailers.



2 邮购住房


Prefab homes goes deluxePrefab homes goes deluxe
What if ordering a new house was no more complex than ordering a stack of books from Amazon.com (AMZN)? That’s the basic idea behind a new line of prefabricated housing from LivingHomes of Santa Monica. Designed by renowned California architect Ray Kappe and aimed at a high-end, environmentally conscious clientele, the RK1 model has hit the market at $775,000 (not including land and extras). When an order is placed, the house is built in a factory, trucked to the homesite, and assembled in just one day. The 3,100-square-foot RK1 is a far cry from the trailer-park stereotypes of prefab living. Sleek, modern, and eco-friendly, it comes with high-efficiency LED lighting, solar panels, and an optional environmental monitoring system to keep energy use in check. Countertops, tiles, structural steel, and insulation are made from recycled materials.

PRODUCT RK1

MANUFACTURER LivingHomes

Designer Ray Kappe

Bottom Line One show home has been installed; six are contracted to go up during the next year.



3 后院风力发动机

Eco-power doubles as modern artENERGY

Eco-power doubles as modern art

Want to turn your backyard into a wind farm? The QR5, from U.K.-based Quietrevolution, is a residential-scale wind turbine that generates enough electricity to power a standard U.S. home or a small office. It also looks like a piece of wind-powered sculpture, which may prove to be one of its most important selling points. Quietrevolution’s Richard Cochrane designed the QR5 to masquerade as an objet d’art to mollify critics who might grumble about ugly, noisy propellers.

Beneath the skin is what Quietrevolution calls the world’s most efficient turbine for capturing air currents near buildings and other structures, with carbon-fiber blades shaped to grab gusty city winds without making much noise. But make sure your checkbook is fully charged: At $48,000, the QR5 costs twice as much as a traditional propeller-style unit that generates the same output.

Product QR5

MANUFACTURER Quietrevolution

DESIGNER Richard Cochrane

Bottom Line Two units have been installed in commercial development projects around London, with 70 to 80 planned for the coming year.



4 巨广角镜照相机


A wider angle on the marketCONSUMER ELECTRONICS
A wider angle on the market

Most manufacturers build point-and-shoot digicams with 3x zoom lenses. That’s great for shooting faraway subjects, but the zoom function narrows the camera’s field of vision, making it impossible to shoot broad landscapes or to squeeze all of your friends into one close-up frame. Owners of pricey SLRs solve the problem by popping a wide-angle lens onto the camera body; Kodak (EK) engineers gave the EasyShare V570 pocket camera the same capability by equipping it with two independent lenses–one zoom and one wide-angle–that switch automatically. To draw attention to Kodak’s breakthrough configuration, industrial design consultant BlueMap highlighted the dual-lens system and shrouded the camera in a retro-cool design. The combination clicked. With the V570 a leader in Kodak’s premium product range, earnings for the company’s consumer-digital group soared in the last two quarters of 2006.

PRODUCT EasyShare V570

MANUFACTURER Kodak

DESIGNER BlueMap Design

BOTTOM LINE The V570 has sold well and helped boost sales of cheaper cameras, putting Kodak’s consumer-digital group solidly in the black.

5 玩具赛场

Plays like a toy, drives like the futureMARKETING
Plays like a toy, drives like the future

Horizon is a startup that builds industrial-grade fuel cells–and a clever way to show how they work. The 6-inch H-Racer runs for three minutes on a balloon full of hydrogen fuel.

PRODUCT H-Racer

MANUFACTURER Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies

DESIGNER Taras Wankewycz

BOTTOM LINE Brisk sales of this tiny toy contribute cash to the company’s bigger R&D goals.



6 新颖烧烤

The mind-altering BBQ experienceBRAND EXTENSION

The mind-altering BBQ experience

Sure, the Jeppe Utzon BBQ can grill your hamburger. But Electrolux hopes that it will also change the way you think about the company’s brand. Appliance manufacturer Electrolux Home Products Australia commissioned Jeppe Utzon–the 36-year-old grandson of Sydney Opera House architect Jørn Utzon–to create a unique "halo product." The result was a $7,100 grill for the Australian market that sold out its first two production runs. Utzon fitted the stainless-steel table with Corian and designed cover panels that slide out to reveal a diamond grill and a hot plate. When you’re not cooking, the covers slide back in place to convert the unit into a swanky patio table.

PRODUCT Jeppe Utzon BBQ

MANUFACTURER Electrolux

DESIGNER Jeppe Utzon

BOTTOM LINE Electrolux has sold 61 units, and there’s currently a two-month waiting list for the hand-built barbecue grill.

7 划时代的新型轻飞机

The airplane that created an industryAERONAUTICS

The airplane that created an industry

The $1.5 million Eclipse 500 is the first "very light jet" certified to provide air-taxi services at small regional airports. Innovations include a partially rivet-free welded aluminum fuselage. "This could revolutionize air travel," judge Ron Snyder says.

PRODUCT Eclipse 500

MANUFACTURER Eclipse Aviation

DESIGNERS Eclipse, Ideo, and BMW

BOTTOM LINE One jet sold in late 2006, with 2,500 units under deposit. Capacity is sold out until 2008. 


8 赚人眼球的屏幕

VaporwarePROMOTION

Vaporware

Looking to draw attention to your brand at trade shows? FogScreen has created the ultimate in captivating media: a dry veil of water vapor that serves as a screen for computer-generated images. "Fascinating concept," judge Mark Rolston says.

PRODUCT FogScreen

MANUFACTURER FogScreen

DESIGNERS Karri Palovuori and Ismo Rakkolainen

BOTTOM LINE More than 10 of the $98,000 screens have been sold, with more than 100 rented annually.



9 舒适检眼机

A sight for sore retinasA sight for sore retinas

How does a startup compete with giants like Zeiss? Optovue created a radically new technology that uses an infrared beam to probe a patient’s eyes for ailments like glaucoma. To make it more appealing to patients, Optovue encased the hardware in clean, welcoming lines.

PRODUCT RTVue

MANUFACTURER Optovue

DESIGNER Whipsaw

BOTTOM LINE 100 of the $60,000 units sold in 60 days.


10 更先进的GPS

The GPS guidebookThe GPS guidebook

There are GPS gizmos for climbing Mt. Everest, but until Mio spotted the opportunity, there wasn’t one designed to help you find a cafe while strolling around town. The DigiWalker integrates full GPS mapping in a slick, pocket-size package.

PRODUCT Mio DigiWalker H610

MANUFACTURER Mio Technology

DESIGNER Mitac International

BOTTOM LINE The H610 quickly helped Mio achieve a 37 percent market share for personal navigation devices.