Clayton Christensen's book The Innovator's Dilemma has been a must read for technology-minded entrepreneurs and managers. I see that Dan Bricklin is suggesting that Christensen's latest book The Innovator's Solution is just as compelling. I've got to pick up a copy tonight.
A recent Forbes article outlines some of Christensen's refined argument. I bet just as The Innovator's Dilemma popularized the term "disruptive technology," so too will the latest book popularize phrases such as "competing against non-consumption" and "hiring a product." I'm particularly curious to better understand the nuances of the phrase "hiring a product" and how it compares with a philosophy I've been taught: that "people do things for a reason" and part of providing a better solution is to understand this reason rather than simply understanding and simplifying the mechanics of what they are doing.
Another aspect of the book I'd like to digest revolves around how much of what the book discusses is evident in "real-time" versus historically. Understanding the practical balances of competing ideas and needs is often the greatest challenge and something that is often found by trial and error and gut thinking.
I know Dan Bricklin has a Tablet PC. I wonder if he sees ink as a disruptive technology that's competing against non-consumption or rather as a sustaining innovation?
Tablet PC predecessors were marketed in the early 90s as a disruptive technology, but today Microsoft presents it more as an evolutionary innovation. I guess it depends on the market segment as to how disruptive a Tablet PC is. What I like about the Tablet PC and ink-based technologies is that they have the potential of providing solutions to lower and larger markets. Clearly, computing on your feet or in a classroom has been close to a non-market that the Tablet PC has a chance of addressing. On the other hand, someone sitting at their desk 100% of the time writing emails isn't going to be too impressed with a Tablet PC today. But the question is: which market can grow bigger over the next handful of years and has a chance of subsuming the other?
Posted by Loren at October 17, 2003 03:29 PMI haven't checked against the new equation, but my gut tells me that ink will be the disruptive technology and not the Tablet form factor itself.
Posted by: Lora on October 20, 2003 11:30 AM