Comment by analog31

Indeed, I work in one of those businesses that seems to barely innovate. Many of our "new" products are mainly necessitated by obsolescence of components and changing applications. As I explain to people: The laws of physics don't change, at least as they affect our technology. For instance the earliest CCD and the latest CMOS image sensor share a lot of the same basic physics, and are made from the same chemical element.

In those industries, a person who deeply understands the theory behind the technology is assured of some job security. That's my job.

One area that has experienced more rapid innovation is software. And maybe it's not quite at the failure rate of drug development, but I think it's noticeably higher than for most "hardware" projects.