Technology is an enabler
Lots of people mistakenly consider it is technology which drives development. Yet from the definitions above, that will is clearly not necessarily the case. It is opportunity which usually defines innovation plus technology which permits innovation. Consider the particular classic “Build a better mousetrap” example trained in most business schools.
You may possibly have the technological innovation to build a new better mousetrap, but if you possess no mice or the old mousetrap works well, presently there is no opportunity and then typically the technology to create a better a single becomes irrelevant. Alternatively, if you usually are overrun with rodents then the chance exists to improve a product using your own technology.
Another example, one with which I actually am intimately acquainted, are consumer electronic devices startup companies. I have been connected with both those that been successful and those of which failed. Each possessed unique leading advantage technologies. The was opportunity. Those who unsuccessful could not get the opportunity to develop a meaningful advancement using their technologies.
In fact to be able to survive, these companies had to morph quite often into something completely different and if they will were lucky they will could take advantage of derivatives of their original technologies. More often compared to not, the authentic technology wound upward in the scrap heap. Technology, therefore, is an enabler whose ultimate benefit proposition is to be able to make improvements to our lives. In purchase to be appropriate, it requires to become used to create innovations that usually are driven by chance.
Technology as a competitive advantage?
Corporations list a technology because one of their particular competitive advantages. Is this valid? Within some cases sure, however in most situations no.
Technology develops along two routes – an evolutionary path and also a groundbreaking path.
A revolutionary technologies is one which enables new industries or enables solutions to problems that have been previously not possible. Semiconductor technology is usually a good instance. Not just did that spawn new industries and products, yet it spawned some other revolutionary technologies – transistor technology, built-in circuit technology, processor technology. All which often provide many associated with the services and products we all consume today. But is semiconductor technological innovation a competitive advantage? Looking at the amount of semiconductor companies that exist today (with brand new ones forming every day), I’d point out not. How regarding microprocessor technology? Once again, no . Lots of microprocessor companies out there.
How concerning quad core processor technology? Not because many companies, but you have Intel, AMD, ARM, and a host of businesses building custom quad core processors (Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, etc). So again, not much of a competing advantage. Competition through competing technologies and easy access in order to IP mitigates typically the perceived competitive advantage of any particular technology. Android compared to iOS is a good illustration of how this particular works. Both systems are derivatives associated with UNIX.
Apple applied their technology in order to introduce iOS and gained an early on market advantage. However, Google, utilizing their variant of Unix (a competing technology), caught up fairly quickly.sorry, no manipulations with clipboard allowed The reasons with this lie not really inside the underlying technology, however in how the products made possible simply by those technologies were brought to market (free vs. walled garden, etc. ) and the differences in the tactical visions of every business.
Evolutionary technology is one which incrementally builds upon the bottom revolutionary technology. But by it’s really nature, the incremental change is easier for a competitor to match or perhaps leapfrog. Take regarding example wireless cellular phone technology.
Company Sixth is v introduced 4G products prior to Organization A and while it may have experienced a short expression advantage, as shortly as Company A introduced their 4G products, the benefit due to technology disappeared. The consumer went again to choosing Company A or Organization V based upon price, service, coverage, whatever, but not necessarily based on technology. Thus technology might have been relevant in the short term, but in the long expression, became irrelevant.
Within today’s world, technology often quickly come to be commoditized, and inside any particular technology lies the seed products of its own death.
Technology’s Relevance
This article had been written from typically the prospective of the finish customer. From a developer/designer standpoint points get murkier. The particular further one is removed from the particular technology, the much less relevant it will become. Into a developer, the particular technology can appearance like a merchandise. An enabling product, but a product nonetheless, and thus it is extremely relevant.
Bose uses a proprietary signal digesting technology to permit products that fulfill some market requirements and therefore the technologies and exactly what it enables is relevant to all of them. Their customers are more concerned with exactly how this might sound, what’s the particular price, what’s typically the quality, etc., rather than so much along with how it is achieved, thus the particular technology used is usually much less strongly related them.
Recently, I was involved in a new discussion on Google+ about the new Motorola X telephone. A lot regarding the people upon those posts reprehended the phone regarding various reasons — price, locked footwear loader, etc. Presently there were also lots of knocks on the fact that it failed to possess a quad-core processor chip like the S4 or even HTC One which often were priced similarly.
What they did not grasp is that will whether or not the manufacturer utilized 1, 2, 4, or 8 induration in the end makes zero difference as long as the cell phone can deliver a competitive (or also best of class) feature set, functionality, price, and consumer experience. The apple iphone is among the most prosperous phones ever created, but it runs over a dual-core cpu. It still offers one of typically the best user encounters on the industry. The features that usually are enabled by the technology are exactly what are appropriate to the customer, not the technological innovation itself.
