Comments on: “Killer” products or “Transformative Devices?” http://theprofessornotes.com/archives/908 Where my thoughts and your eyes (and now ears!) collide Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:55:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: The Professor's Notes » Blog Archive » Amazon vs Apple – pending App Store Wars? http://theprofessornotes.com/archives/908/comment-page-1#comment-10504 The Professor's Notes » Blog Archive » Amazon vs Apple – pending App Store Wars? Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:52:48 +0000 http://theprofessornotes.com/?p=908#comment-10504 [...] is a key strength of the Kindle –the portability of reading. As I have written before, in several places, a move to ubiquitous reading seems to be the greatest opportunity facing [...] [...] is a key strength of the Kindle –the portability of reading. As I have written before, in several places, a move to ubiquitous reading seems to be the greatest opportunity facing [...]

]]> By: Jason Leisure http://theprofessornotes.com/archives/908/comment-page-1#comment-10493 Jason Leisure Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:32:48 +0000 http://theprofessornotes.com/?p=908#comment-10493 This discussion takes me back to the MBA required MNGMT 514 class with Dr. Russell at PSU Harrisburg. The discussion of incremental vs. Disruptive technological advances was the focus of the Gunfire at Sea case. In this case, Sir Percy Scott makes a series of improvements to his ship's Gunnery in order to improve accuracy. The gear ratio was changed, the telescope was re-rigged and repositioned and he added a gun for practice. All parts by themselves served a purpose, but put together to operated in sync, continuous-aim gunfire was possible. The impact that these changes had were similar to many of the innovative changes made by Apple. Let's look at the iPod as an example. If we start to dissect the parts of an iPod, we can see where the genius of the device is in taking existing technologies and melding them together into one device, not in true invention or innovation. There is a 2.5 inch HDD (at least in the older ones), a small screen, and software. The 2.5 inch HDD has been used in laptops for years. The small screen has been used in mobile devices like cell phones for years and software has been written for a better part of the past century. Not mentioned yet, but critical to the iPod making sense is the advent of a compressed sound file or video file that can be moved from a computer's hard drive to a mobile device's hard drive. With all these pieces, the iPod was born. One final aspect that I don't want to forget: The prevalence of a mental map for mobile music created by the Sony Walkman back in the 1980's. The real innovation in the iPod was in taking the digital media quickly amassing on consumer computers and make it mobile by making the iPod fit into the mobile mental map I just described. So, to respond to the question of whether products are killer or whether they just transform a market, I assert transformation is an immediate affect and killer is when a product has sticking power. Because we are discussing products that people use, it we need to include the slowness at which people adopt new technologies. The iPod transformed the mobile music market. Because the iPod 'stuck', it has killed other products such as the Sony Walkman. The killing is carried out with each individual decision by a consumer to purchase an iPod instead of a Walkman. This discussion takes me back to the MBA required MNGMT 514 class with Dr. Russell at PSU Harrisburg. The discussion of incremental vs. Disruptive technological advances was the focus of the Gunfire at Sea case.

In this case, Sir Percy Scott makes a series of improvements to his ship’s Gunnery in order to improve accuracy. The gear ratio was changed, the telescope was re-rigged and repositioned and he added a gun for practice. All parts by themselves served a purpose, but put together to operated in sync, continuous-aim gunfire was possible. The impact that these changes had were similar to many of the innovative changes made by Apple.

Let’s look at the iPod as an example. If we start to dissect the parts of an iPod, we can see where the genius of the device is in taking existing technologies and melding them together into one device, not in true invention or innovation. There is a 2.5 inch HDD (at least in the older ones), a small screen, and software. The 2.5 inch HDD has been used in laptops for years. The small screen has been used in mobile devices like cell phones for years and software has been written for a better part of the past century.

Not mentioned yet, but critical to the iPod making sense is the advent of a compressed sound file or video file that can be moved from a computer’s hard drive to a mobile device’s hard drive. With all these pieces, the iPod was born.

One final aspect that I don’t want to forget: The prevalence of a mental map for mobile music created by the Sony Walkman back in the 1980′s.

The real innovation in the iPod was in taking the digital media quickly amassing on consumer computers and make it mobile by making the iPod fit into the mobile mental map I just described.

So, to respond to the question of whether products are killer or whether they just transform a market, I assert transformation is an immediate affect and killer is when a product has sticking power. Because we are discussing products that people use, it we need to include the slowness at which people adopt new technologies.

The iPod transformed the mobile music market. Because the iPod ‘stuck’, it has killed other products such as the Sony Walkman. The killing is carried out with each individual decision by a consumer to purchase an iPod instead of a Walkman.

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