1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,959 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi, everybody, 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette and 5 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:23,439 Speaker 1: I am an editor here at how stuff works dot Com. 6 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: Sitting across from me, as he always is, his senior writer, 7 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. This will only hurt a little what comes 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: next more so? Alright, I don't have any idea where 9 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: that one came from. Maybe our listeners do. Yeah, it's 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:38,960 Speaker 1: from a movie I watched on Netflix instant. Don't judge me, 11 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: all right, So let's leads us to a little listener mail. 12 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: This listener mail comes from Dave from New Hampshire, and 13 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,200 Speaker 1: Dave says, Hey, guys, love your podcast. I was listening 14 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 1: to your podcast about USB FireWire and in the podcast 15 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: you mentioned the backward compatibility of USB versions. I hear 16 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,200 Speaker 1: these terms a lot, backward compatibility, upward compatibility, and I'm 17 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:05,680 Speaker 1: always wondering what do they really mean? How about demystifying 18 00:01:05,720 --> 00:01:08,520 Speaker 1: this topic for me and my fellow loyal listeners. Thanks 19 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,320 Speaker 1: for all you do, Dave. All Right, Dave, we're not 20 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:13,199 Speaker 1: going to do a full podcast on this, we figured 21 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,920 Speaker 1: we'd answer this question quickly before moving on to the 22 00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: main course. But backward compatibility is a pretty simple concept. 23 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:22,880 Speaker 1: Let's say that you have a device and it runs 24 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,560 Speaker 1: a certain kind of software, and then let's say that 25 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: technological advancements and processing power and manufacturing costs have come 26 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:34,559 Speaker 1: to the point where you can make a new version 27 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:38,400 Speaker 1: of this device that runs new software and can do 28 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:43,240 Speaker 1: lots more stuff than the old version can. So let's 29 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:46,000 Speaker 1: as a simple example, we'll go with a video gaming console. 30 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: Will say PlayStation was the original one and PlayStation two 31 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,120 Speaker 1: is the new one. So PlayStation two comes out and 32 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:54,680 Speaker 1: it can run new games that the old PlayStation can't 33 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: run well. Backwards compatibility means that the PlayStation two has 34 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: built in it the ability of playing older games from 35 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 1: the PlayStation one right now. People who like technology really 36 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:12,840 Speaker 1: tend to enjoy the backward compatibility um model because it 37 00:02:12,880 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: means that the stuff they've bought before will still work 38 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: on the new stuff they have now. They don't have 39 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:22,519 Speaker 1: to keep multiple versions of the same device because the 40 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: latest one will run everything right right if you especially 41 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:28,959 Speaker 1: true uh I think of the video game consoles, because 42 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:31,760 Speaker 1: a lot of people fall in love with a particular game, 43 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:35,280 Speaker 1: particular build of a game. They're they're uh, you know, 44 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: we were recently talking about the new version of Civilization, 45 00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: and I know that some people really like Civilization two 46 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: and they couldn't stand Civilization three. So people would continue 47 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: to play the older version of the game, and you know, 48 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: if their computers wouldn't run the older version of the game, 49 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 1: then they would have to either give up the game, 50 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: or you know, continue keeping their old machine around so 51 00:02:57,520 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: that they could continue to play that, or find some 52 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:02,640 Speaker 1: sort of emulator that would allow them to play the 53 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,959 Speaker 1: old game. That it's really what we're talking about here 54 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: is the ability to to use older technology using a 55 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:14,120 Speaker 1: new device or software model. I mean it really, it 56 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:18,120 Speaker 1: can be anything. It's just a general concept. Upward compatibility 57 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:20,520 Speaker 1: is kind of similar in the sense that you design 58 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: something with the idea and mind that future iterations of 59 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: that device will still be able to run the software 60 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:32,680 Speaker 1: you're developing now. So it's it's really it's forethought. You're thinking, 61 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:34,720 Speaker 1: all right, I've built this device. I want to make 62 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: sure that every device I build in the future will 63 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:39,280 Speaker 1: still be able to run the stuff I've got now. 64 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: In case, people really like it, So it's it's one 65 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,800 Speaker 1: of those concepts that again is really popular, especially among gamers. 66 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:49,680 Speaker 1: You hear whenever a new system comes out that does 67 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,840 Speaker 1: not support earlier versions. There's a lot of griping and complaining. 68 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: Nintendo is infamous for this because Nintendo not only will 69 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:01,560 Speaker 1: give you a new game system that will require a 70 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: new kind of medium, right. You know, you might have 71 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:07,920 Speaker 1: cartridges in one system, and then you have many discs 72 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 1: in the next, and then slightly different sized media for 73 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: the for the next one, and they none of them 74 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: will work on the other machines, so you can't play 75 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:19,840 Speaker 1: your older games on your newer machine. Sometimes. Yes, of course, 76 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:21,920 Speaker 1: the we actually is a big step for that. Yes, 77 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,279 Speaker 1: because I only mentioned that because someone will write in 78 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: and tell us that you can play GameCube games on 79 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 1: the Wii and it will let you download games for 80 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,279 Speaker 1: the Genesis and older Nintendo systems to right that, Yes, 81 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: they didn't make a big step in that regardment, right, 82 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 1: But if you look at things like the the Nes 83 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: Super Nes in sixty four GameCube, I mean it's just 84 00:04:40,960 --> 00:04:45,039 Speaker 1: it's a history of not letting you access that older, uh, 85 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,720 Speaker 1: that older product without keeping your older game system around, 86 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,039 Speaker 1: which just means that you end up getting really cluttered. Yes, 87 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: so that's the whole backward compatibility upward compatibility issue. And 88 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:57,800 Speaker 1: now we're going to move on, and it's kind of 89 00:04:57,800 --> 00:05:00,360 Speaker 1: a related topic. It's definitely related. We're going to talk 90 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: about early adopters and why they're important. Okay, then, so 91 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,440 Speaker 1: first I guess we should, uh, you know, define what 92 00:05:07,640 --> 00:05:10,440 Speaker 1: early adopter is. It's actually, it pretty much is what 93 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: sounds like. It's a person who is someone someone who 94 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: will adopt new technology before the general crowd does. So 95 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: it's it's the people who have to have that latest 96 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: and greatest thing as soon as possible, before it becomes 97 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: the most you know, commonly owned device out there. So 98 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: early adopters are the people who moved to cell phones 99 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: before anyone else did, smartphones before anyone else did. They're 100 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: the ones who adopted the new form of like DVDs 101 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,280 Speaker 1: and CDs and and h D DVDs and blue rays. Right. 102 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 1: He Actually the first Uh, if this sounds a little 103 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: foreign to you, that's because this is not really tech speak. 104 00:05:50,279 --> 00:05:53,240 Speaker 1: It's what I would consider marketing speak. The first, the 105 00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: first instance I came across of the term early adopter 106 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: was when I used to work in marketing, and um 107 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: it actually came and where I came to be aware 108 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:08,360 Speaker 1: of it. From Jeffrey A. Moore's book, which was first 109 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: published in nineteen anyone called Crossing the Chasm and UH 110 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: and More comes up with basically five groups of people, 111 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,719 Speaker 1: the innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority, 112 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,560 Speaker 1: and the laggards. Basically, the innovators to the people who 113 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: are the bleeding edge. As soon as it comes out, 114 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:26,839 Speaker 1: they've got to go buy it, the first in line, 115 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,480 Speaker 1: the first day a brand new product is released. They 116 00:06:30,520 --> 00:06:34,520 Speaker 1: don't care about the possible bugs. Um, they don't really 117 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:36,479 Speaker 1: care that it may or may not be a lemon 118 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: or that it may not, you know, take off with 119 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: the market and there's stuff that comes out that's compatible 120 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: with it. Um. They just want it and they want 121 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,120 Speaker 1: it now. And the early adopters followed behind them, but 122 00:06:47,240 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: not too far behind them. These guys, the two groups 123 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: really make up the the people that marketers have been 124 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 1: trying to reach with tech products really probably since UH, 125 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:03,479 Speaker 1: since technolog became such a hot consumer thing, and innovators 126 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:05,840 Speaker 1: can sometimes get hold of products before they even hit 127 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: the market. That's true. We're talking about people who are 128 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 1: so motivated to get hold of this technology that they 129 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 1: form relationships with engineers or companies. Sometimes there are people 130 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: who work within a company. For instance, Google is a 131 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: good example Google. Google does this thing called dog fooding, 132 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: where they encouraged their employees to consume the same products 133 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: that they are building. So for example, the Nexus one, 134 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: that the Android phone that Google put out on the market, 135 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: that was a developer phone, that was an in house 136 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: developer phone before it ever hit the market, and Google 137 00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: engineers had been playing with it for several months before 138 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: the public ever got a chance to play with it. 139 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: In a way, the Google engineers were manufactured innovators. You know, 140 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: whether they had that particular personality trade or not is 141 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: beside the point. They actually were using it before anyone else. Uh. 142 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,800 Speaker 1: And the idea with Google is that you can turn 143 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:04,680 Speaker 1: them into innovator types because, uh, they'll if they like 144 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: the product, they'll go out and they'll talk about it, 145 00:08:06,640 --> 00:08:09,840 Speaker 1: and then that'll lead to the next round of early adopters. 146 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: And we should probably give some percentages here because you 147 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: can think of the whole different classifications as a bell curve. 148 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: So on the bleeding edge. You've got the innovators, which 149 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:26,000 Speaker 1: make up about two point five percent of the entire market, 150 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: and then you've got early adopters, and that's an additional 151 00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:32,440 Speaker 1: thirteen point five percent, so we're still talking about six 152 00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: of the entire market. That's it. You know, everybody else 153 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: falls into either the early majority, so we're talking about 154 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:43,000 Speaker 1: the people who who follow behind the early adopters and 155 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: buy it, but they're not buying it, you know, right 156 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: out of the gate. They're waiting a while to see 157 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,240 Speaker 1: what the early adopters think. And then you have the 158 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:52,319 Speaker 1: late majority. Those are that's everybody else. I would probably 159 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:56,720 Speaker 1: fall into that category for most products. And then you've 160 00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,320 Speaker 1: got the laggards, who are the people who they'll buy 161 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,520 Speaker 1: something once it becomes clear that the stuff they they 162 00:09:02,559 --> 00:09:06,000 Speaker 1: own will no longer work for them. Yes, so that 163 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,000 Speaker 1: these are the people who will eventually break down and 164 00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:10,319 Speaker 1: buy a cell phone just because everyone else has one 165 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:14,199 Speaker 1: and they are, you know there they need one now, 166 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: Or they'll finally go out and they'll they'll buy a 167 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: video game system long after it's been off the market 168 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: because now it's being sold and used game stores and 169 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:23,439 Speaker 1: they're like, well, I've always wanted to play this, but 170 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: I never had the drive to actually go out and 171 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,160 Speaker 1: buy one when it was on the market for real zes. Um, 172 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:32,720 Speaker 1: go ahead, I'm sorry, And now I was gonna reference 173 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: back to uh to the chasm here. Chasm for those 174 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,360 Speaker 1: of you who are unfamiliar with the word are because 175 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,640 Speaker 1: we do have a lot of people who may not 176 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 1: know is a is a gap. So traditionally they're, at 177 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:49,160 Speaker 1: least according to uh More's thinking, there is a gap 178 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,920 Speaker 1: in between the early adopters and the early majority, and 179 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 1: the trick for marketers is to get people in the 180 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:58,280 Speaker 1: early majority to buy it. So they want to, the 181 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,320 Speaker 1: marketers and the product engineers want to cross the chasm 182 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:07,679 Speaker 1: between just this small, you know, sixteen percent population of 183 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: the market to everybody else. And basically they figure, hey, 184 00:10:11,679 --> 00:10:15,280 Speaker 1: if I can get all these people to take it 185 00:10:15,320 --> 00:10:18,319 Speaker 1: on and start using it, then they'll start spreading you know, 186 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: word of mouth. But we have to get people talking 187 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,720 Speaker 1: about this thing. Otherwise it's only going to you know, 188 00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:26,880 Speaker 1: reach the scent of the market and we'll be trying 189 00:10:26,880 --> 00:10:29,679 Speaker 1: to create a brand new product something else to sell 190 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 1: to people. So they want to they want to bridge 191 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:33,840 Speaker 1: that gap, and that's where the title of that book 192 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 1: comes from and for the most part, you know, it's 193 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,240 Speaker 1: it's been a pretty it's played out pretty well, pretty 194 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:41,960 Speaker 1: true to form. Yeah, what's interesting to me is I 195 00:10:42,040 --> 00:10:45,640 Speaker 1: read a some survey results from Roger's Consulting. They they 196 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:48,320 Speaker 1: got a famous, uh survey on this back in the 197 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:52,040 Speaker 1: eighties and it's still kind of something that holds true today. Uh. 198 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:56,559 Speaker 1: They found in their survey that fifty of early adopters 199 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:01,120 Speaker 1: held either a master's degree or a PhD. So we're 200 00:11:01,160 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: talking about people who have reached a high level of education. Um, 201 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:07,679 Speaker 1: they have a lot of They normally have a lot 202 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:11,760 Speaker 1: of income they can dispose of. Because that's why the 203 00:11:11,800 --> 00:11:13,800 Speaker 1: things about being an early adopters. It means that you're 204 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:18,640 Speaker 1: buying the technology back when it first premieres. It's usually 205 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: when it's the most expensive, and you have to you 206 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: have to be willing to take a risk. Right, you're 207 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 1: going to be investing in a technology. There's no guarantee 208 00:11:27,280 --> 00:11:30,640 Speaker 1: that technology is going to be successful yet, so you're 209 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: spending a good deal of money on a product that 210 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 1: may not succeed and may not be supported for very long. So, 211 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,040 Speaker 1: so these people are are highly educated and they are 212 00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:45,800 Speaker 1: risk takers and they have lots of money, kind of 213 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:49,000 Speaker 1: the people I want to hang out with. Well, it's 214 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:53,720 Speaker 1: it's it's very challenging to reach past the early adopter 215 00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:57,480 Speaker 1: segment for different people, and they're looking at in different ways. 216 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: The venture capitalists who are the people that fund brand 217 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:04,800 Speaker 1: new companies UM are looking are constantly looking for a 218 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:07,160 Speaker 1: way to reach past the early majority because they want 219 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: to fund stuff that's going to make them lots and 220 00:12:09,160 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: lots of money. Now, a brand new startup developer making 221 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,640 Speaker 1: a software or hardware product is really not concerned with 222 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,079 Speaker 1: reaching the early majority because they want to read. They 223 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:21,840 Speaker 1: want to reach the innovators. They get them to start 224 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:23,720 Speaker 1: buying it, and they have the early adopters start buying 225 00:12:23,720 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: it and hopefully after that. I mean, they're not really 226 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: worried about this. And this is this is actually what 227 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:31,600 Speaker 1: I got from reading Alexis Cold's article on Read Write 228 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:33,840 Speaker 1: Web not too long ago. But I thought it was 229 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,920 Speaker 1: funny because we started talking about doing this podcast and 230 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:38,559 Speaker 1: he just wrote this this article about it. UM. He 231 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:42,040 Speaker 1: actually used the example of the iPod as something like that. Now, 232 00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:45,520 Speaker 1: Apple didn't have that same problem because people knew who 233 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 1: Apple was. UM. Of course, at the time the iPod, 234 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: they were still still regaining some credibility after several bad 235 00:12:53,960 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 1: years of products where they were losing market share for 236 00:12:57,559 --> 00:12:59,920 Speaker 1: the computers. They really didn't have any other consumer like 237 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:03,840 Speaker 1: tronics on the market other than the computers at the time, um, 238 00:13:03,880 --> 00:13:05,600 Speaker 1: but they had something brand new. They had an MP 239 00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: three player, and they were entering a market that already 240 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:11,320 Speaker 1: had other people in it, in the MP three three 241 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:13,000 Speaker 1: player market. But what they did, they came up with 242 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:16,560 Speaker 1: a pretty product. You know, people pick on Apple for 243 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,760 Speaker 1: having pretty products, but you know, that helped them cross 244 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:24,120 Speaker 1: from the early adopters to the early majority, because that 245 00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:25,800 Speaker 1: that was one of the things that people liked about it. 246 00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:27,880 Speaker 1: That and the fact that it was easy to use, 247 00:13:28,400 --> 00:13:30,520 Speaker 1: and with each new version of the product that it 248 00:13:30,520 --> 00:13:33,840 Speaker 1: became more powerful, and that helped them move past the 249 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,560 Speaker 1: early adopters. One of the things Apple built into the 250 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,400 Speaker 1: iPod is something that tends to frustrate early adopters, but 251 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,200 Speaker 1: it's very pleasing to the majority, which is that, you know, 252 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:44,920 Speaker 1: you remove a lot of the choice, a lot of 253 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,079 Speaker 1: the freedom out of your product. So the product works 254 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 1: really well, but it works really well in the specific 255 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,960 Speaker 1: way and and outside of that specific way. It either 256 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,280 Speaker 1: does not work well or it doesn't work at all. 257 00:13:57,400 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: In other words, you may not be able to use 258 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:01,840 Speaker 1: it out side of the way they intend you to 259 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:05,199 Speaker 1: use it. And for early adopters and innovators this can 260 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: be frustrating because they're they're kind of looking for the 261 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:11,360 Speaker 1: device that will let them do pretty much anything. The 262 00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:14,080 Speaker 1: majority they want something that works, and they want something 263 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:18,280 Speaker 1: that works in a specific way. So a music player, 264 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 1: they want a music player that's gonna work really well, 265 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,640 Speaker 1: it's gonna make it easy for them to organize their music. Um, 266 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: they're not necessarily concerned about customizing that experience or opening 267 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:30,840 Speaker 1: it up any They may or may not even be 268 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: aware of the limitations of the device. Yeah, it just 269 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: matters that it looks nice and it works. And uh 270 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: actually Clive Thompson over at Wired had a really good 271 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: article too. Yeah. I was going to mention that targeting 272 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: late adopters. Yeah, and this is one thing that I 273 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: had not considered before. Um, to go back to Scold's point, 274 00:14:49,160 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: another problem is that some people, some early adopters, adopt 275 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:56,400 Speaker 1: stuff and give it up before the early majority reaches it. 276 00:14:56,480 --> 00:15:01,000 Speaker 1: So some things are dying more quickly than others simply 277 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,600 Speaker 1: because the early adopters tried out they like it, but 278 00:15:04,720 --> 00:15:06,680 Speaker 1: then there's another new thing that comes out right on 279 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,120 Speaker 1: its heels and they buy it instead, and so they 280 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 1: never the word of mouth never gets going, and they 281 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,320 Speaker 1: never really sell a lot of them. But in uh, 282 00:15:15,400 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: in Thompson's article, that's a completely different thing. Yeah, I 283 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:20,720 Speaker 1: mean it's it's a completely different way of look. He's 284 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: he's suggesting that by ignoring the laggards, you are essentially 285 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:31,000 Speaker 1: counting out of the market, which is a huge number. Yeah, 286 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:34,320 Speaker 1: and just adding a few people from the laggards category 287 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: into the market for your device would really boost sales 288 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: quite a bit. And so how would you do that? Well, 289 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: Thompson's point is that that laggards are not necessarily always laggards. 290 00:15:46,800 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: They can leap frog technologies and then not the not 291 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,160 Speaker 1: the company leap frog, but they actually jump over generations 292 00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 1: of technologies and then adopt the latest thing once whatever 293 00:15:58,240 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: it is they possess is no longer really viable. The 294 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,640 Speaker 1: example Thompson uses is he says, take a person who 295 00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: has a walkman, an old Sony Walkman cassette player. Yes, 296 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:12,680 Speaker 1: and they're happy with it, and they don't have and 297 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:15,280 Speaker 1: they don't see any reason to change from the Sony 298 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:20,200 Speaker 1: Walkman until so they skip over the CD revolution. They 299 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:22,480 Speaker 1: don't they don't go into CDs, they don't go into 300 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 1: the mini discs or anything like that because the Walkman 301 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,640 Speaker 1: still works fine. Then eventually MP three players come out, 302 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:31,600 Speaker 1: and then you have the person who has the Sony 303 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: Walkman either realizes that they are hopelessly out of date 304 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: and they want to catch up, or their device no 305 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,240 Speaker 1: longer works because the wear and tear is finally worn 306 00:16:41,280 --> 00:16:43,960 Speaker 1: it down, or if you're talking about cassettes, you can 307 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: also just make the argument of the formats no longer 308 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,040 Speaker 1: really supported anywhere. You can't it's hard to get music 309 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:54,280 Speaker 1: on cassette now. So if in that case the laggard 310 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:56,000 Speaker 1: will go out and buy something, well, the lagger is 311 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: not going to go out and buy a CD player 312 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:00,720 Speaker 1: or a mini disc playerlagger it will go out and 313 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: buy an MP three player, which means that temporarily your 314 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:10,040 Speaker 1: laggard has switched from laggard to early adopter. So Thompson's 315 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,200 Speaker 1: point is that people who are in these categories aren't 316 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:16,359 Speaker 1: necessarily always in the same categories. Situation might come up 317 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:19,800 Speaker 1: where someone behaves as if they are in the early 318 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,520 Speaker 1: adopter category when normally they would be in one of 319 00:17:22,560 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: the other ones. So Thompson's point is that manufacturers should 320 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,160 Speaker 1: try and find ways to market to these people, saying, hey, 321 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,159 Speaker 1: you know, we know that this product that you have 322 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:35,480 Speaker 1: that you love is great and all, but really what 323 00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,000 Speaker 1: you want is this new product because it does all 324 00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:39,600 Speaker 1: the things your old one does, but it does it 325 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: better and you've got more options and that kind of stuff. 326 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:44,080 Speaker 1: That's the sort of message you need to give to 327 00:17:44,119 --> 00:17:47,200 Speaker 1: the Lacquard's Uh. Thompson doesn't really go into detail about 328 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,679 Speaker 1: how to achieve that, because that's not really the point, 329 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:52,280 Speaker 1: the point being that, you know, you can't ignore this 330 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:55,880 Speaker 1: segment of the market because that's money gone to waste. 331 00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:59,439 Speaker 1: I can actually give you a personal example to UM. 332 00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:04,119 Speaker 1: I we picked up a standard definition television back around 333 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: two thousand or so. UM that you know, it was 334 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:08,960 Speaker 1: much bigger than the one that we had, and we 335 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,919 Speaker 1: really liked it. At the time. High definition television is really, really, 336 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:16,679 Speaker 1: really really expensive, at least as far as my income 337 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,320 Speaker 1: was concerned. UM. And then you know, I still consider 338 00:18:19,359 --> 00:18:22,359 Speaker 1: them somewhat expensive. But it's funny because you know, my 339 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,119 Speaker 1: wife and I have talked about the possibility of getting 340 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,640 Speaker 1: a high definition television. Now now that I do tech 341 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,520 Speaker 1: stuff and I do a lot of research on these things. UM, 342 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:32,800 Speaker 1: I've started looking at the ads and going, well, you know, 343 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,439 Speaker 1: these high def televisions have a hundred twenty hurts refresh rates. Well, 344 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:41,040 Speaker 1: maybe I should wait until the two forty hurts refresh 345 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:43,040 Speaker 1: rates are cheap, you know, And it's it's the same. 346 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,480 Speaker 1: And I actually reading Thompson's article, I saw that in myself, 347 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:50,480 Speaker 1: thinking we'll see. Now I'm waiting for the you know 348 00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: what is currently the uh, the higher standard. Um, I'm 349 00:18:55,080 --> 00:18:57,159 Speaker 1: waiting for that to come down in price, so you 350 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,640 Speaker 1: know when I finally do, because my current TV works fine, 351 00:18:59,680 --> 00:19:01,359 Speaker 1: it looks it looks fine to have a nice signal 352 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: coming in UM, and I don't have to have high def. 353 00:19:04,840 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: So I'm thinking, well, maybe I should wait. And I 354 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:10,040 Speaker 1: thought about it, and of course I don't fall true 355 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:12,520 Speaker 1: to exactly to to his because then I would have 356 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:17,160 Speaker 1: purchased a two forty hurts TV and become an innovator 357 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: or early adopter of that technology. But still, I mean, 358 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:21,639 Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of people who go, 359 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:23,960 Speaker 1: you know, the thing I got works. I don't really 360 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:26,480 Speaker 1: need to fork over a couple of thousand dollars for 361 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:28,919 Speaker 1: this next big thing that's come out. I'm gonna wait 362 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,000 Speaker 1: until it comes down in price, and I you know, 363 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:33,800 Speaker 1: maybe they'll be even something newer out that I like 364 00:19:33,840 --> 00:19:37,280 Speaker 1: even better. And that's that's another reason why early adopters 365 00:19:37,280 --> 00:19:39,920 Speaker 1: are important. Early adopters will go out and they'll they 366 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: have the income and the desire to purchase these products, 367 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: right A lot of them do. Right. Well, if you're 368 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:48,720 Speaker 1: an early adopter, you better have the income because you're 369 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:50,919 Speaker 1: not gonna be an early adopter for long unless you're 370 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:53,399 Speaker 1: an early steeler. You mean, like the people who paid 371 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,800 Speaker 1: five six hundred dollars for a CD player or or 372 00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,159 Speaker 1: four hundred or six hundred dollars for an iPhone they 373 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:02,640 Speaker 1: first came out. It's a good example. In fact, we'll 374 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,160 Speaker 1: get into that a little bit um. But early adopters, 375 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:06,720 Speaker 1: what they'll do is they'll go out and they'll purchase 376 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: this technology. It tends to be pretty high in price, um, 377 00:20:11,359 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: but that can give an indication of which technology is 378 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 1: going to end up being successful, which means companies can 379 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:20,920 Speaker 1: invest in manufacturing processes and bring the cost of manufacture down, 380 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,080 Speaker 1: which means they can then in turn drop prices without 381 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: hurting their profit margin too much, which means the rest 382 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:28,880 Speaker 1: of us can get our hands on it because we 383 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: we couldn't afford a CD player when it first came out, 384 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 1: but a year and a half or two years later, 385 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 1: the price had dropped to the point where it was 386 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,320 Speaker 1: now reasonable. Uh. That tends to be the case, but 387 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: it also means that early adopters run the risk of 388 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:44,920 Speaker 1: purchasing a product that never really takes off and therefore 389 00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:48,880 Speaker 1: never drops in price and and ends up losing support quickly. Uh. 390 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,680 Speaker 1: Some examples of this with their their tons. I know 391 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:55,200 Speaker 1: what you're thinking of first, though, what's that I'm thinking 392 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:57,680 Speaker 1: that you're going to the h d DVD route. HD 393 00:20:57,800 --> 00:20:59,879 Speaker 1: DVD is a really good example. Beta Max would be 394 00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:02,400 Speaker 1: an other one, because those two have some a lot 395 00:21:02,400 --> 00:21:06,920 Speaker 1: of parallels. The HDDVD and Beta max stories. These are 396 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,960 Speaker 1: two different formats for video. You know, it's video recording 397 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:14,160 Speaker 1: and playback. Actually for for Beta Max, technically it's just playback. 398 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,479 Speaker 1: But at any rate, you would the early adopters went 399 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: now bought these things, and you could argue that one 400 00:21:20,920 --> 00:21:24,200 Speaker 1: was better than the other. For example, in Beta max, 401 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: it's big component was VH. Our opponent rather was VHS, 402 00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,720 Speaker 1: so you had two different technologies. Early adopters adopted both. 403 00:21:31,840 --> 00:21:35,880 Speaker 1: VHS ended up being successful. HDDVD you had HDDVD versus 404 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:39,920 Speaker 1: blu ray, and blu ray ended up surviving. I was 405 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:42,399 Speaker 1: gonna say be successful. But there are arguments now that 406 00:21:42,400 --> 00:21:45,000 Speaker 1: blue ray. In fact, Microsoft at the time that we're 407 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,600 Speaker 1: recording this podcast this week and executive over at Microsoft 408 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: proclaimed blue ray to be dead. Now, granted, keep in 409 00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:54,160 Speaker 1: mind that's a Microsoft executive and blu ray is a 410 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:58,600 Speaker 1: Sony technology. That that is correct, So you could argue 411 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,320 Speaker 1: that perhaps they're saying blu ray is dead because they 412 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: have an interest in blue ray not being around anymore. Yes, 413 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,399 Speaker 1: but they're not offering a competing technology. They're actually saying 414 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:13,360 Speaker 1: that they believe streaming right will take over instead. And 415 00:22:13,440 --> 00:22:16,720 Speaker 1: that's I'm sure that that is making some people in 416 00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: the majority and Laggard's pause before adopting blue ray. I'm 417 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,480 Speaker 1: one of them, someone who has not yet adopted the 418 00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,960 Speaker 1: blue ray format because streaming is a possible alternative, and 419 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,440 Speaker 1: at any rate, the early adopters who adopted either Beta 420 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 1: max or HD DVD soon discovered that their product was 421 00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,919 Speaker 1: no longer being supported by manufacturers, and so you had 422 00:22:39,960 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 1: a very limited library that you could go to, and 423 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,200 Speaker 1: then you know, it was just taking up space that 424 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:51,160 Speaker 1: There's a huge history of technology that falls into this category. 425 00:22:51,200 --> 00:22:54,160 Speaker 1: I mean video gaming consoles alone. You heard in our 426 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,000 Speaker 1: History of Video Games podcast how many old consoles we 427 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:00,439 Speaker 1: listed that you may not have ever heard of before 428 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:03,360 Speaker 1: because they never took off. You know, the Atari ended 429 00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 1: up becoming the dominant video game system of the early 430 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:11,000 Speaker 1: late seventies early eighties, and the others like Clico Vision 431 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,280 Speaker 1: UH and in television were able to compete a little bit. 432 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:17,400 Speaker 1: But beyond those three you probably hadn't heard very many 433 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:20,639 Speaker 1: of the other names we've listed. Early adopters might have 434 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,240 Speaker 1: bought them, but the majority never moved to them and 435 00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,199 Speaker 1: they ended up dying. So really, the early adopters are 436 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,640 Speaker 1: hurting because of that. The other big hurt is when 437 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:32,879 Speaker 1: you are an early adopter, you go out and you 438 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,600 Speaker 1: buy something, and then a couple of months later the 439 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:39,440 Speaker 1: price drops dramatically and you think I'm being penalized for 440 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:43,520 Speaker 1: supporting this company. Yes, um, And the big example there 441 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,639 Speaker 1: would be the iPhone, Apple iPhones. So Apple iPhone when 442 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: it came out, I think there were two models of 443 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:50,640 Speaker 1: four gigabyte, and a gigabyte is four hundred or six 444 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: hundred dollars. So the early adopters rushed out and bought them, 445 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:56,919 Speaker 1: and I just a couple of months later, they dropped 446 00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: the well, they dropped the four gigabyte altogether, and the 447 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:03,119 Speaker 1: gigabyte model I think dropped two hundred bucks. And so 448 00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 1: the people who early early adopters who went out and 449 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 1: bought the phone, we're saying, well, you know, it's a 450 00:24:08,359 --> 00:24:10,360 Speaker 1: it's a great phone, and I love it, but now 451 00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:12,359 Speaker 1: I feel like I was an idiot for buying it 452 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,640 Speaker 1: so early because I spent so much money. And then 453 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 1: Apple ended up giving a hundred dollar essentially gift card 454 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,399 Speaker 1: Apple Card to the early adopters, which helped a little 455 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,320 Speaker 1: healed a lot of wounds. At least was saying that 456 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:29,159 Speaker 1: Apple was saying, hey, you know what, we appreciate the 457 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:32,040 Speaker 1: fact that you supported this product, which you know, our 458 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,480 Speaker 1: company has never made a phone before, so there's no 459 00:24:34,520 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: way of us knowing whether or not it's going to 460 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: be successful. So that kind of smoothed out some stuff 461 00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: between early adopters and Apple. But that's that's the danger 462 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:45,159 Speaker 1: that you run into when you're an early adopter is 463 00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: that you you one, are going to spend more money 464 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,000 Speaker 1: than other people in the same product. You're just gonna 465 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:52,159 Speaker 1: get it first and to it may not succe. The 466 00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: product may not succeed, and so you may end up 467 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: with a useless hunk of electronics. Uh and some people. 468 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:02,720 Speaker 1: There's been a lot of interesting discussion about why people 469 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: are early adopters. I mean, there's the whole love of technology, 470 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,679 Speaker 1: but there's also an element of status that comes with 471 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,120 Speaker 1: being an early adopter. So if you ever have known 472 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:17,359 Speaker 1: someone or if you happen to be this person, the 473 00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:22,120 Speaker 1: person who casually leaves out a new cool device that's 474 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:25,159 Speaker 1: in view, you know, not necessarily pointing it out, but 475 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: leaving it so that it's easily seen so people are like, hey, 476 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,879 Speaker 1: that's really cool, then you might fall into that category. 477 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 1: For example, if you're one of those people who happens 478 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: to have an iPad and you leave it out on 479 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,240 Speaker 1: your desk so that every single time someone else has 480 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 1: to walk by your desk in order to get to 481 00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 1: his desk, he sees the darn thing. Maybe you fall 482 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:48,720 Speaker 1: into that category just a little bit. I get your point. 483 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:54,000 Speaker 1: I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just being awfully specific. Yeah 484 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:58,080 Speaker 1: that that that actually, you know, especially since I'm conscious 485 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,520 Speaker 1: of people saying that about Apple's prought. You know, I 486 00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 1: was kind of thinking about that when I when I 487 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,399 Speaker 1: got the iPad, because that's not you know, at least consciously. 488 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: I I try to avoid doing that, but you know, 489 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:12,240 Speaker 1: I have no idea whether subconsciously I'm trying to show 490 00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,600 Speaker 1: off to other people. But yeah, for some people, they do. 491 00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,320 Speaker 1: They make a great big deal out of it. Um 492 00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:21,879 Speaker 1: and uh, you know that that's that's all part of 493 00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: why people might want to do that. I'm thinking of 494 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:29,439 Speaker 1: a certain uh infamous venture capitalist and his uh, his tesla. 495 00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:34,320 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's true. That Yeah, that is a pretty 496 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: uh that's a pretty expensive piece of Technolog's a double 497 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,440 Speaker 1: because it's a car, which has always been seen as 498 00:26:40,440 --> 00:26:44,000 Speaker 1: a status symbol, true and technology which is you know, 499 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:47,680 Speaker 1: more of a recent development. Yeah that that that's true. 500 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,080 Speaker 1: It's uh, it could be early adopter, could be just 501 00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,359 Speaker 1: about it could be almost any kind of technology, not 502 00:26:53,480 --> 00:26:57,159 Speaker 1: just a piece of computer or electronic equipment or um. 503 00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,240 Speaker 1: You know. Actually, I've always heard that it's sort of 504 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 1: a bad idea to be the early adopter for a 505 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:05,200 Speaker 1: lot of car models because there are bugs that that 506 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,760 Speaker 1: can be a problem. Actually, I was one of the 507 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,560 Speaker 1: first people to UH to buy an iMac, the very 508 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: very first iMac. I was there on the day they 509 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: opened the store, the first day that you could buy 510 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,040 Speaker 1: when it was their inline and UH at that point 511 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 1: and tells USB technology. That was the first Mac to 512 00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:28,960 Speaker 1: embrace USB. And I had a lot of problems getting 513 00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:33,520 Speaker 1: USB to work correctly because there weren't drivers available. Drivers 514 00:27:33,520 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 1: are the the piece of software that basically allows one 515 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,880 Speaker 1: piece of electronic equipment to interface with another. For example, 516 00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:42,040 Speaker 1: in this case, a computer and a printer. I bought 517 00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:45,120 Speaker 1: a USB printer for it, but you know, I had 518 00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: trouble at the very very outset trying to get it 519 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,960 Speaker 1: to communicate with it because there just weren't a lot 520 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: of It had difficulty with the USB interfaces on and off. 521 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:55,639 Speaker 1: It wasn't just that I had a game pad that 522 00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:57,920 Speaker 1: I bought for it, which most of the time it 523 00:27:57,960 --> 00:27:59,840 Speaker 1: didn't really have a problem with, but sometimes it did. 524 00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:02,280 Speaker 1: And I know that in later iterations, and of course 525 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:06,080 Speaker 1: now USB is ubiquitous on on just about every kind 526 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:07,919 Speaker 1: of computer that at least that has some kind of 527 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 1: external port right. Um, but yeah, that that happens a 528 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,120 Speaker 1: lot with all kinds of early adopter technologies. You may 529 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: find that the market isn't ready to support you yet. Yeah, 530 00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,760 Speaker 1: and this does go beyond just the physical hardware and 531 00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:23,879 Speaker 1: software is the same way, like, if you're one of 532 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:26,800 Speaker 1: the people who loves to try beta programs and you're 533 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,640 Speaker 1: an early adopter, you're an early adopter of software, not 534 00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:33,159 Speaker 1: necessarily hardware. Uh. And I fall into that category. I mean, 535 00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,680 Speaker 1: I'm whenever Google Chrome comes out with a new beta, 536 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 1: I'll tend to try it out. Uh. And you know 537 00:28:39,120 --> 00:28:42,680 Speaker 1: that's I don't think anything more of that. That then, 538 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 1: I don't really think of as a statis symbol because 539 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,000 Speaker 1: it's not like I'm walking around to people saying, hey, look, 540 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,640 Speaker 1: I have the latest Google Chrome build on my computer. 541 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,600 Speaker 1: But I have been guilty of other ones where like, 542 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: you know, I'm with a group of friends, I'm thinking, 543 00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:56,840 Speaker 1: you know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna whip out 544 00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,400 Speaker 1: this Android phone because it's awesome. I don't do that 545 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,360 Speaker 1: anymore because it's two years old, so it's no longer 546 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 1: really on the cutting edge. But you know, yeah, to 547 00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:05,960 Speaker 1: your to your point, I'm made a testing a game 548 00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: right now, um that I've reached a certain point in 549 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:12,560 Speaker 1: the development of the character. I created my character, and 550 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,000 Speaker 1: I'm playing through the game, and there's a point at 551 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,840 Speaker 1: which you're supposed to do something to take the step 552 00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:20,440 Speaker 1: to achieve the next level. And they're saying, okay, you 553 00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: have to choose from these different paths, which one will 554 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: you choose? Well, when I chose the path, you know, 555 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:29,880 Speaker 1: I spent hours developing this character and building up his 556 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,720 Speaker 1: his gear and all this stuff, and I chose a 557 00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:36,440 Speaker 1: path and it's like, well, okay, sorry, and now I've 558 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: I've reached the point where it didn't take right as 559 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,680 Speaker 1: it's supposed to in the game, and I can't actually 560 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:45,080 Speaker 1: go forward with the character now and develop it further 561 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:46,920 Speaker 1: because there's a bug in the game that won't let 562 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 1: you continue. So now I've wasted Well, depends on how 563 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:52,200 Speaker 1: you look at it. I've spent a lot of time 564 00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,040 Speaker 1: developing this character. And because I am trying, I'm actually 565 00:29:55,040 --> 00:29:57,040 Speaker 1: an innovator in this case, because I'm beta testing this 566 00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:00,000 Speaker 1: one where and I can no longer develop this character 567 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:03,720 Speaker 1: that you know, sort of poured hours of digital blood, 568 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:06,800 Speaker 1: sweat and tears into developing. So that's that's a peril 569 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,280 Speaker 1: that you run into. But I, well, actually I don't 570 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: get to brag about it because I signed a nondisclosure agreement. Well, 571 00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: at any rate, you get to experience it before anyone else, 572 00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:18,640 Speaker 1: that's true, and it's it's been a lot of fun 573 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 1: doing that, so you know, there are trade offs. Yeah, 574 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:25,080 Speaker 1: So anyway, early adopters are important. They will continue to 575 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:26,800 Speaker 1: be important. They're the ones who are going to really 576 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:31,120 Speaker 1: kind of drive the way consumer technology goes because you know, 577 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,720 Speaker 1: if the early adopters go after it and convince the 578 00:30:34,760 --> 00:30:37,920 Speaker 1: majority to go after it, that's what we end up 579 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:41,480 Speaker 1: seeing available available in stores, you know, and the stuff 580 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,760 Speaker 1: that early adopters go after one year are going to 581 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,760 Speaker 1: be the things that go on sale on Black Friday 582 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:51,960 Speaker 1: and Cyber Monday the next year. So that's uh, you know, 583 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 1: kudos to you early adopters. I wish I could also 584 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: ignore risk, and I wish I also had the the 585 00:30:57,680 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: disposable income that you have. Uh, right now, I just 586 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,520 Speaker 1: ignore risk, which is not good when you don't have 587 00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,640 Speaker 1: disposable income. I don't see how you could ignore risk, 588 00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:12,680 Speaker 1: it's such a good game. And on that note, let's 589 00:31:12,680 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 1: close this off. Remember if you want to give us 590 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:19,239 Speaker 1: any comments, questions, you've got topic suggestion, let us know 591 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: on Twitter or Facebook. You can find our handle it's 592 00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: tech Stuff h s W. Or if you want to 593 00:31:26,480 --> 00:31:28,840 Speaker 1: do the old way, you can always email us. 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