Order (or just read more about) Innovator's Dilemma from Amazon.com
This isn't really a "computer" book, although there are many references to computer technology, and a good part of the book is drawn from the history of disk drives.
Andy Grove (Intel CEO and Chairman) calls it "scary"- and it is.
Another reviewer warns that we can ignore the implications "at your own peril".
When I read it the first time I knew I'd be reading it again, and probably a third time. It's that interesting, and it's that important. This is a whole new way of looking at how new technology grows, and why companies get destroyed by down market products that they are ignoring.
This book helps us understand that the products of the future are invariably near useless today, are always underpowered, too expensive or too slow or too clumsy, and are justifiably sneered at by those who are selling today's products. It tracks the failure of company after company in disparate fields who were destroyed from below by products that had no value to their customers.
It makes me think again about such things as Java, network terminals, even Web TV- and of course, Linux. It will definitely affect the way I think about any new product from this point on.
Buy this book. You won't regret it.
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More Articles by Tony Lawrence © 2011-11-05 Tony Lawrence
Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed. (Mark Twain)
Sat Nov 5 13:43:50 2011: 10117 TonyLawrence
An excellent example is Microsoft's Courier Tablet:
(link)
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The Innovator's Dilemma Copyright © January 1999 Tony Lawrence
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