How early adopters shape tech

How early adopters shape tech

Early adopters are the gatekeepers of new technology and innovation – the “influencers” who set trends. But, is the tech industry too concerned with their specific tastes, and are the innovation needs of the rest of us being ignored?

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm
https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062292988/crossing-the-chasm-3rd-edition

Pew data on early adopters
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/12/28-of-americans-are-strong-early-adopters-of-technology

Who are early adopters? (Academic literature review) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312632078_Who_are_the_early_adopters_in_the_diffusion_of_innovations_A_literature_review

JP Eggers on focusing on the customers you want
https://hbr.org/2015/06/focus-on-the-customers-you-want-not-the-ones-you-have

Rita McGrath on pace of tech adoption
https://hbr.org/2013/11/the-pace-of-technology-adoption-is-speeding-up

Price of tech goes down over time
https://humanprogress.org/article.php?p=698

CREDITS
Writer: Louis Foglia
Editor: m.cho
Researcher: Dushyant Naresh
Supervising Producer: Allison Brown

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50 Comments

  1. You literally didn’t answer a question you put in the title. I hoped to see how early adopter’s feedback ruined, kick-started or drastically changed business models, but you just explained the concept

  2. I was an early adopter of the "pyramid". At first I wasn’t a fan, but after I heard Jim Halperts speech about it? I was 100% on board!!! 😀

  3. I used to be an early adopter but as I age I move to the right of the curve. I just watch out for practicality more even though, deep down, I still get that impulse to dive into brand new tech.

  4. So, is nobody going to talk about "Hello my name is Influencer" on the bottle thingy? XD

  5. I really want a Tesla but the fact is 1. I can’t afford one. 2 there is not enough charging stations where I live in state like HI, OR, WA. Also it takes too long to change 30 mins. I can fuel my simi truck in less than that

  6. I can see how women might have some different needs for tech in some cases but I really don’t see how minority groups might have a different need for technology.

  7. im a lagger, i wait for a technology to be developed first and of a high standard before i buy it, I only bought my first macbook 13” when it finally got 16gb ram

  8. Snapchat Spectacles Version 1 is kind of a flop but just a few improvements would make it a success

  9. I have seen this concept a while back however it is not that simple to categorize or generalize them. The only thing they have in common is their passion.
    Being wealthy doesn’t make one an early adopter. A company doesn’t have a choice but listen to the early adopters since this is the first instance where a larger number of people experience the product.
    An early adopter usually has a fair amount of independence because of their passion. Buyers who aren’t passionate in it has no choice but listen to early adopters and this has plenty implications for the future of e-commerce, sales, marketing, jobs, etc.

  10. You’re confusing early adopters with innovators. 16.5% of America did not buy Google glass (fewer than 2.5% did). Also, confusing innovator-fitbit example. Buying plazma TVs in the 90s is a much better example (they had cost over $10,000 at one point and literally only a few people bought them – aka the innovators).

  11. "As more and more people get on board, the cool kids start to feel a little claustrophobic and a little uncool. A lot of us early Facebook users felt this way when we got a Friend request from our mothers."

    Welcome to the eternal September.

  12. You guys should make it more obvious that it’s a Lou video, you’ll get my click faster, just saying.

  13. I like Your content, I really enjoy the REFERENCES to EVEN sometimes scientific papers!
    Keep this goin and You will start to influence smartest people around 😉
    BUT, I disagree with You Musk edition.

  14. I love this video. I’ve never really seen someone outside of university talk about early adopters and the impact they have on tech in our society

  15. This guy looks like nerdy version of the guy from unbox therapy. Even their voices match !

  16. is this channel owned by Casey Neistat ? If so , atleast something part of BEME is still alive

  17. The good news is… when you take a step back from the consumer market, and look at tech adoption on a national level, it’s accelerating all across the world. It took 39 years for old school telephones to reach 40% penetration. It took smartphones just 10 years to reach that same percentage of users.

    And keep in mind, a recent study demonstrates that societies that utilize new tools quickly are more likely to be more productive. In fact, the variation in adoption rates between countries accounts for 25% of differences in a country’s per capita income. In other words, if you’re not using the latest innovations – whether that’s personal computers or MRIs – you’re at a major disadvantage.

    But that lag rate has shrunk in recent years. Academics think that can shrink inequality, too.

    (If this sounds like a script, it is. I decided to cut this section at the last minute).

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