Disruptive technologies

"Disruptive technologies" has become one of the buzz-words of late. Its a technology thats disruptive in nature i.e. causes a tubulence in the market for the existing technology. At times this can drive up the market to a new high of expectation resulting in a raised standards. But at its worse it can spell doom for the existing market players.

I recently read an interesting article about Disruptive technologies/ innovations (http://www4.gartner.com/research/fellows/asset_93329_1176.jsp). Its a discussion between Howard Dresner, an eminent technology writer, and Dr. Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor and the preeminent expert in the area of disruptive innovation and business strategy.

Clayton has a different take on what qualifies to be called disruptive. As per him, "a disruptive innovation brings to market a product not as good as the products in the current market, and so it cannot be sold to the mainstream customers. But it is simple and it is more affordable. It takes root in an undemanding portion of the market, then improves from that simple beginning to intercept with the needs of customers in the mainstream later."

I beg to disagree.

I dont quite think that the new technology has to be more affordable to be disruptive. It can charge a premium for the value it adds and still cause turbulence in the market.

Lets take the example of the Audio CD. When introduced it was quite expensive than the prevalent audio cassette. (And still continues to be, even though the advancements and experience have resulted in considerable price reduction) It charged a premium for the increased customer experience. But it was disruptive enough even though less affordable and eventually dislodged the audio cassette from its prime position of being the preferred audio playback format.

Another such disruptive innovation is Open Source Technologies...and the topic of my next blog on technology. Watch this space! :)