MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/867
120 MacDirectory PROFILE GRIFFIN TECHNOLOGY > NEW IDEAS, NEW INNOVATIONS Paul Griffin, founder and CEO, started Griffin Technology in 1992. An innovative company, their engineers, and all the other employees, are constantly coming up with new ideas for your MP3 player, TV, stereo, and anything else they can think of to play with. An excellent example of "Batman Technology," and they have fun doing it. MacDirectory recently had the opportunity to speak with Mark Rowan of Griffin Technology in Nashville. MacDirectory > Mark, how about introducing yourself to our readers. Mark Rowan > My name is Mark Rowan and I am director of product development here at Griffin Technology. I've been with the company about six years; came over as a product development engineer doing electrical engineering work and manufacturing interface. The company has grown along with the iPod economy. We've built a team here to always focus on keeping the capability of design in house. We have our own designers; mechanical engineers; we have software guys; we have a team writing software for the iPhone now and all the product design and development is done in-house here at headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. MD > Tell us about Griffin Technology. MR > Although people know us as the iPod accessory company – Griffin started in 1992 and was originally known as the company that made monitor adapters for Macs. Paul Griffin founded the company with the idea of using PC monitors, which were ample and available at the time, but did not work with Mac. He figured out how to make a little adapter that would take these cheap and available monitors and use them with the Mac. In 1992, the Internet was basically a bulletin board system and he saw that need on the boards. People were saying they were using the Mac and wanted to get the new, large PC monitor and use it with their Mac. They were saying, "My friend has this new, huge monitor that he is using with his PC and it's not fair. I want one for my Mac." He identified this need; a little self- education and research into what exactly the protocols were and how to translate them and, I believe, he was actually selling monitors at first. He had this deal – what he had was the monitor with an adapter – and then he realized what people really wanted was just the adapter. All the way back in the company, you can see that the DNA of the Griffin company is about solving people's problems. Helping people use the technology the way they wanted to use it. I think all the way up through our iPod products and our iPhone cases we are doing today, you see that common thread. We are all users of these products. Paul came up with the product because he was a fan of the product – he was a user of the Mac and active in that community so he understood the problems, the issues the user had, and it's still that way today. We are iPod users, iPhone users, and Mac users. We are Blackberry users – we use the devices that we design around. Griffin Technology designs, manufactures and delivers useful and fun solutions for digital entertainment and personal computing to people in the Americas, Europe and Asia through major retailers and online. You can find Griffin Technology at GriffinTechnology.com. WORDS BY E. L. GRIGGS AIRCURVE