WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Disruptive Technologies 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.920 --> 0:00:15.200 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.560 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:21.639 and how the tech area. You know, it's time for 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.240 a tech Stuff classic episode, folks, and this episode originally 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.520 published on July twenty second, two thousand and fifteen. It 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:35.479 is called disruptive technologies. Disruptive is an adjective that lots 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.600 of folks like to use for businesses that often have 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.200 no business plan. That at least has been my experience. 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.680 But let's take a listen to the classic episode. The 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:52.600 concept of disruptive technology. You hear it a lot, but 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.920 often it is not very well explained and sometimes, in fact, 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:01.640 often it is misused, uh just eruptive technology. Sometimes is 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.560 being used just to mean something that has a lot 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.920 of buzz around it, but doesn't necessarily mean it's going 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:12.399 to be disruptive. The term itself is actually pretty specific. 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:17.840 It was originally coined by Clayton M. Christensen in a 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:23.240 book titled The Innovator's Dilemma, and specifically was talking about 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:27.279 disruptive innovation, not just technology, but innovation in general. Because 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.880 it doesn't have to be a physical thing. It could 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:34.800 be a new way of going about doing something. And 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.000 Christensen was saying that disruptive innovation was something that in 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:44.320 business meant adopting techniques or developing technology that eventually completely 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:51.120 surpasses or replaces previous approaches, possibly harming whatever business back 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:56.480 the other older and in the long run, wrong technology. 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.360 So I'd say a type of technology that disrupt an industry, 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.720 sometimes completely changing the way stuff is done, sometimes completely 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:13.280 invalidating long standing UH industries or business practices. So it's 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.839 it's meant to be signify something that is really going 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:21.000 to be transformative, not necessarily for the better. It doesn't 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.240 mean that the disruptive technology is more powerful or more 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.200 effective or more efficient. It might just be cheaper or 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:33.960 easier to produce than the previous version. So here's an example. 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.840 You might look at a ah, you know, something that 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.120 was made by hand, like a handmade article of clothing 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.120 versus a machine made article article of clothing. One is 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.960 not necessarily better than the other just because it happens 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.400 to be made in a different way. You could have 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:57.960 handmade clothing that is superior to machine made clothing, but 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:03.600 because the speed and the expense of using a machine 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.560 can be much lower, or the speed is faster, but 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:08.920 the expense is lower than if you were to rely 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.000 on a human being to produce that piece of clothing. 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:18.120 The sewing machine and other automated ways of creating garments 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:24.839 end up pushing the the handmade version to a niche market. Now, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.120 you could argue that in cases like that, a person 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.680 could still make a pretty decent living working by hand. 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:34.760 It's just that the nature of the business has changed. 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.920 In fact, you could argue that by marketing it as handmade, 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.520 you could charge more for your product and thus make 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.440 more money on a per product basis, and that could 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:51.760 be very helpful. But the industry overall, the giant umbrella industry, 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.440 has changed significantly. So I'm going to look at several 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.640 different disruptive technologies. I'm pulling a lot of these from 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.040 an r iCal that we have on how stuff Works 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.880 dot com. If you don't remember how stuff works dot 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.640 Com is my employer, Tech Stuff is part of how 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.600 Stuff Works, and the article is ten disruptive technologies you 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.080 use every day. Now, there's one that's not on the 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:19.240 list that you certainly use frequently. You have to if 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.440 you're listening to this podcast that I think merits special mention, 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:29.320 and that is the Internet. The Internet is incredibly disruptive 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.200 and that it has changed the way we do lots 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:36.600 of stuff. It has enabled platforms to exist on top 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.599 of it that have completely shaken up the way things 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.440 used to work. Here's a you know, a simple example 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.200 is shopping. You know, back in the day, you had 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.240 to do one of two things. You ordered from a catalog, 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:51.520 in which case you would go through a catalog, you'd 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.320 fill out your order, you'd send it in, and then 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.040 you would wait for stuff to be delivered to you, 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:58.960 or you would have to go to an actual physical 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.640 store and purchase things. I guess theoretically you could have 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:05.479 a door to door salesman, so maybe there's three, but 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:08.360 that that was pretty much your only choices, and then 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.080 you were limited by the inventory of the physical space 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.440 you went to. Uh you were you know, you had 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:18.360 to actually make time out of your day to travel there. Uh. 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.240 You had to expend a lot of energy just to 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.039 get from point A to point being. These days, we 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.800 can do a ton of our shopping online, never leave 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:31.240 the comfort of our chair. Uh. The inventory is enormous 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.080 because there are a lot of companies out there that 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.159 either keep huge inventories or they can create on demand, 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:41.080 depending upon whatever the thing is you're trying to buy. 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:46.520 And so the Internet has really disrupted the shopping industry. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:48.840 You've got a lot of stores out there that are 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.400 struggling to continue to make their numbers so that they 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:55.160 can remain open. We've seen lots of different chains close 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.680 over the last few years, bookstores being a big one. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.320 A lot of electronics store has have been having problems. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.080 That's indicative of the disruption we have seen from the Internet. 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.440 And that's just one thing that the Internet has disrupted. 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.839 Another could be long distance communications in general. The first 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.080 one on our list in the on the side is email, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:21.080 and clearly email has been disruptive. It is changed the 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.960 way we communicate with one another. We have this immediacy now. 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.480 We no longer have the long delay between writing something 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:33.440 and someone else receiving it and then responding because back 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.119 in the old days, we would write letters and send 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.640 those through the mail, and then we have to wait 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:44.320 for the postal service to deliver our note. We have 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.760 to wait for the person to read it, then write 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:48.880 their own response, send it, and we have to wait 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:54.120 to receive it. So communication was very different by its 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:55.919 very nature. It had to be I mean, you couldn't 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.279 be asking a question that you needed an answer, you know, 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.600 within hours. That was not going to happen. But email 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.080 has changed things dramatically. It's also kind of changed the 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.719 nature of how we communicate. And you will hear people 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.720 occasionally talk about how letter writing is now a lost 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.880 art that people no longer know or bother to write 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.160 letters in a way that they used to because email 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:24.080 has supplanted. That has really changed the nature of communication. 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.640 But emails cheaper, it's easier than handwriting a letter. There's 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.240 no postage, there's no paper, there's no ink. Really, all 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.880 you need is an internet connection. So whether you are 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:39.360 paying for internet service or you're going someplace like the library, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:43.320 even to send a message, uh, you know, that's all 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.760 you need really, and uh, of course it'll get to 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.239 where it's going in moments, so if the other person 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.560 is online, you could end up getting a response before 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:57.960 you have a chance to navigate away from the email window. 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.400 So it's very different. It has completely changed the nature 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:08.080 of the postal service. Um, things like greeting cards and invitations, 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:11.200 even those have started to decline. According to a two 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.880 thousand eleven p Internet survey of adults in the US 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:20.000 who got online used email them used it on a 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.200 typical day of all Americans used email to some extent. 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.320 That might even mean that we're communicating more. It may 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.040 not be the same quality of communication, but the quantity 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:33.280 certainly has gone up. And of course there's tons of 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.280 other stuff that we send through email. So that's a 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:40.000 good example of how the Internet has disrupted things. Beyond 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:44.079 the shopping aspect, there are others as well. Social media, 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.040 which is number nine on the list, also applies. Obviously, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:52.560 they are allowing us to have interactions with our friends 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.839 and family, no matter how far apart they may be 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.640 from us. Um you can share in for nation, not 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.280 just through text, but you can share links, you can 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.640 share videos or music, you can share photographs. You have 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:13.720 this opportunity to have these interactions that before would have 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.040 been limited to whenever you were with one another, or 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.160 perhaps you had to rely on something like the snail 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:25.120 mail service. So again, incredibly disruptive, and we've even seen 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:32.640 this this pocket get shaken up multiple times as new 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:38.840 players have incorporated different strategies and disrupted social media. So 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:44.200 while social media has disrupted larger industries, social media itself 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:48.120 has experienced disruption. A great example of that is my Space, 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:52.280 which used to dominate the social media area, and then 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:57.959 Facebook comes along and ends up becoming incredibly disruptive because 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:02.640 of its appeal to a large young user base and 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.800 grew from there, and my Space eventually collapsed in on 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.120 itself and had to redefine itself and still is struggling 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:14.160 to define itself as something relevant in today's social media landscape. 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:16.920 We'll be back with more of this classic episode of 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:27.959 tech stuff after this quick break. As of early more 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:30.360 than half of the people who use the Internet also 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.200 regularly used social media, not a big surprise. In the 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.520 US that tends to be on the high end of 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:41.960 the scale, so about as of January, and other nations 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.760 it may be lower, but it shows that people are 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:50.360 really you know, they've incorporated this into their lives. It's 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.560 not just something that is occasionally used. I mean, I 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.959 don't know about you, but I have Facebook open pretty 0:10:57.040 --> 0:11:00.120 much the entire time I'm sitting at any computer. And 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.800 it may not be that I'm on Facebook the entire 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:06.560 time solely, but it's always got a tab dedicated to 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.960 it because this is how I tend to interact with 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.960 my friends these days. We all are very busy, we 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.240 all have schedules that pretty much prevent us from getting 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.679 together on a regular basis. But this is a way 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:23.520 I can maintain contact without having to, you know, put 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:28.319 anyone to any trouble, which is nice now. It also, 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:33.480 you could argue, is less satisfying than other means of interaction, 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.000 like an actual physical get together where you can hang 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.400 out and spend time with one another. And I don't 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.319 argue that at all. Again, the disruption doesn't necessarily mean 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:47.040 it's better. Sometimes just means it's easier or more effective 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.560 in a way. So, uh, you know that, depending on 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.120 your view of social media, you might see it as 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:58.240 helpful disruption or very harmful disruption. There are a lot 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:02.800 of other examples of disruptive technologies that have utilized the Internet, 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.000 streaming media being a huge one. This is enormous. A 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:11.959 few years ago I talked about how people would be 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:16.080 increasingly moving away from cable and using the Internet to 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.600 get access to various forms of entertainment. At the time, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.480 you know, it was it was an obvious move. Even 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:27.199 when I I said it, but it was still something 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.679 that was only occasionally talked about because I think, well, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.200 for one thing, the big media companies were a little 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:36.120 worried about where things were going because they relied on 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:39.320 old forms of media delivery to get their message across. 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.559 So it's kind of scary to report on the potential 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:46.800 decline of the industry you currently are in, But that 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.640 is exactly what we've seen happen. We've seen cable subscriptions 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:55.240 for cable television decline as we've seen people start to 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.959 use other services online more frequently, things like Amazon or 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:04.720 Hulu or Netflix to get their their their entertainment. We've 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.760 also seen the growth of new forms of entertainment, things 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:12.640 like YouTube, where people who are not part of a 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.520 larger network are creating their own content and finding an audience. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:22.319 Uh that has become an incredibly powerful story where people 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:25.760 who normally would not have had an opportunity to communicate 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.040 through the Internet suddenly have this outlet. And not only 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:32.080 do they have an outlet, but people find what they're 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:36.400 saying to be valuable, whether that's entertainment or it's news 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.199 or just personal opinion or whatever it may be. There's 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:43.600 now this outlet that that did not exist before, and 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:48.439 it's actually starting to take a big chunk out of 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.600 the traditional media. Now, there's still a long way to go. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.760 You're gonna hear a lot of people talk about how 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.400 this stuff is going to force the traditional media companies 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.360 out of business, and in the long run, maybe that's 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:02.240 going to be the case. I think it will probably 0:14:02.320 --> 0:14:04.680 even out where we're going to have a balance across 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:10.040 multiple platforms. That's my own personal guests, but it certainly 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:15.680 has proven itself to be a valuable way of getting 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:19.240 to an audience. It's been effective and it's just going 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.280 to continue to grow. The big challenge moving forward, I 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.800 think for content creators is getting noticed because this space 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.400 is getting more and more crowded. So it may turn 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:34.040 out that until something else comes along and shakes up 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:38.880 this industry, the streaming media industry, that you're going to 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.880 have a few really big players in the space and 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.320 then a whole bunch of little guys. And as someone 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:50.720 who creates videos and uh and podcasts that are not 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.880 part of how stuff works, I can tell you being 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.840 one of those little guys, it's tough. I mean, it's 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.120 tough to get noticed, but uh, Ultimately, it all depends 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.400 on why you're doing it. If you're doing it for fun, 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.120 like I do for my outside projects, it's not as 0:15:07.120 --> 0:15:10.040 big a deal because you just do it until it's 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.240 no longer fun and then you stopped doing it. If 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:13.680 you're doing it to make a living, then it's a 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.360 much bigger deal. Obviously, you have to figure out how 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.640 to reach that audience so that you can get paid. 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.800 However that may be, whether it's through sponsorships or direct 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.840 contributions through Patreon or something along those lines. But these 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:31.760 streaming services have really created a new story that didn't 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.880 exist just a few years ago. Back then, I mean, 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:38.760 the only way you could end up getting on television 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.640 if you didn't already have a job there was through 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.680 like a public access station, or maybe if you went 0:15:44.720 --> 0:15:47.640 to college and they had a college television station, that 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.440 was a way you could break into the industry. But 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.880 otherwise it was pretty tough. So it's been amazing to 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:57.960 watch this particular transition. Next on the list is e 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:02.640 readers and e reader apps. Obviously one of the hallmark 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:06.760 disruptive technologies to come along over the last decade. So 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:08.600 e readers have been around for a while but it's 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.760 only been you know, a few years since the first 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:17.880 e paper uh devices really became affordable to the average 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:24.040 person and paired with the right you know service like Amazon, 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.200 And by right, I mean it makes it really super 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:33.000 easy to get stuff onto that book. They've become powerful tools. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:37.800 So whether you like Amazon's business approach or not, it's 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.840 impossible to deny their effectiveness Because you go out and 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:46.080 buy a kindle, it is incredibly easy to purchase content 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.760 for your kindle through the kindle. You know, you're buying 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.480 it through Amazon, and that was their business model that 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:56.440 makes incredible sense, the idea of selling this piece of 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.640 hardware that makes it really easy for you to get 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:04.200 intent and people are able to grab books and movies 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.000 and music through Amazon and experience it through their various devices. 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.200 It has been a huge blow not just too brick 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:18.000 and mortar book companies, but publishers as well as music 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:23.840 companies and film Honestly, home video clearly has taken a 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.840 huge hit. Whether it's the brick and mortar retail stores 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:30.760 where you would go and buy a DVD or Blu ray, 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:33.960 or it's uh, you know, rental places. There are very 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.000 few of those left around you've got Red Box and 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.360 a couple of others. And here in Atlanta, we've got 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:43.480 some independent companies that are still around that are really 0:17:43.560 --> 0:17:48.560 charming and have very eclectic collections. Video Drome in Atlanta. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.520 If you were ever in Atlanta and you want to 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:56.800 see a real quirky, weird video rental place, go to 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:00.840 Video Drome. UM. It's at the corner of Highland and 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.879 North Avenue, and it is amazing. They have a lot 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.000 of character. But obviously that business model, which used to 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:11.719 be enormous, I mean, Blockbuster Video and other companies like 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:16.199 it dominated various strip malls across the United States. You 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:19.720 could not go very far without seeing another one, and 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:24.840 these days they're long forgotten. Well, e readers UH and 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:28.840 e readers and other devices, streaming devices and streaming media, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.640 as well as the shopping I was talking about earlier, 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:37.040 have all contributed to seeing those kind of fade away. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:41.280 Smart mobile devices similar approach. It's also something that has 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:46.000 really been disruptive. It's number six on the list. Uh. 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.879 It was just a few years ago that everyone assumed 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.480 that cell phones were just going to continue to get 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.880 smaller and smaller in the future, because that was what 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.520 was considered to be sexy, you would get a phone. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.920 The next model would be even smaller and more compact. 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:06.440 There were lots of UH sketches on television, particularly starting 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:11.000 that Live of characters who had comically tiny phones because 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:13.640 it was a status symbol supposed to show how important 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:17.040 that character was, or how important that character wanted to 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.720 seem to be. And that was the joke, was that 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.640 it was just going to continuously get smaller and smaller. UH. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:26.320 Smartphones turned that all around. So smartphones disrupted the phone, 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:30.440 the mobile phone market because once the iPhone came out 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.399 and showed that there was a compelling way to access 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.480 things like the Internet through your phone, it meant that 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.280 you wanted to have a screen that was of a 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:44.120 large enough size for you to be able to read 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.800 things and interact with it. And then we saw the 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:48.920 trend start to reverse until now we're at the point 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.040 where you start seeing the comically large phones, the fablets. 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:54.680 I own one of those. I have a next to six. 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:59.040 It's enormous, So that trend ended up reversing. We've also 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:04.120 seen the they these devices have disrupted other industries, including 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.040 e readers and tablets, and we've seen them disrupt some 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:12.080 gaming industry too, because of the way that apps have 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.560 reshaped the gaming landscape. You have gamers who are truly 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:23.720 dedicated to specific consoles or two computers to PCs, and 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.880 then you have others who are happy to play whatever 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.360 on whichever platform. And mobile devices are incredibly handy because 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:36.320 you almost always have one with you, and the experiences 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.720 can be really satisfying depending upon the design of the app. Obviously, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:45.240 not all apps are created equal, but we've also seen 0:20:45.960 --> 0:20:51.280 smartphones replace other stuff, things like uh, day planners, which 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:53.960 you might think, well, that's not that big a deal, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.840 but there are companies that just made day planners, or 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.159 they made day planners as part of their business us, 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:03.639 and there's less and less reason to go out and 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.640 buy one of those. Or digital cameras. Back in the day, 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.359 we used to have digital cameras as standalone devices because 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:16.240 they took much better photos than our phones could. Phone 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.439 images would be really low resolution, very grainy. But today 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:23.440 we're seeing better and better sensors incorporated into phones, and 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:28.880 I rarely carry around an extra camera. Sometimes I do 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.520 in very specific circumstances, but most of the time I'm 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.880 happy to just carry my phone. Same thing is true 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.760 with MP three players. I used to be the person 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.119 who wanted to have a n MP three player dedicated 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:45.040 solely to MP three playing and that's it. But as 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.560 phone uh storage got larger and larger, and as cloud 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.360 storage began to become a thing, I stopped doing that. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:56.000 Cloud storage would be another great example not on the 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.919 list here, but I'll talk about for a second. Cloud 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:01.640 computing and cloud story in general, has been incredibly disruptive 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:06.760 because by offloading the processing and storage requirements from a 0:22:06.840 --> 0:22:11.160 localized area to the cloud, you disrupt all the businesses 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:15.200 that used to provide the machines that either processed information 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.440 or stored it. So more and more companies are moving 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:22.560 to cloud based services. It decreases the demand they have 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:27.480 for powerful machinery on the front end, and it means 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.719 they can make a lower investment. So in other words, 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:34.880 the employees at a business might end up with cheaper laptops, 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.560 but in the end it doesn't matter because the laptops 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:40.679 aren't really doing all the work. A lot of the 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.280 work is being offloaded to the cloud. So very disruptive. 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:46.920 It also means it creates new opportunities if you're the 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:52.200 one making those inexpensive laptops. You've got a powerful business 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:55.600 now because of these other companies that have created these 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.159 powerful cloud services. We've got more to say in this 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:02.400 classic episod sort of tech stuff after these quick messages. 0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.000 Next on the list, we have mobile payment options. There's 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:16.399 so many of these, Apple Pay being one that's in 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:18.600 the news quite a bit, but there are other ones 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:23.280 as well, things that end up taking the the the 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.919 sting out of having to, you know, keep track of 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:31.080 all your various cards, reward systems, things like that, all 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:33.119 of that being wrapped up into an app that can 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:37.240 keep track of everything for you. Very powerful, also extremely disruptive, 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.000 really good example in this list. So there are a 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.920 lot of different options here. I mean there's the Google Wallet, 0:23:46.000 --> 0:23:50.040 there's Apple Pay, there's into it go payment, There's lots 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:54.760 of stuff out there. And this applies both on the 0:23:54.840 --> 0:23:59.480 user side and on the vendor side. You've got companies 0:23:59.520 --> 0:24:01.960 that are are using this stuff in order to be 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:06.480 their point of sale, and it's really a great tool 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:10.399 for them because they can end up offloading that and 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.840 they don't have to invest in, you know, larger technologies 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:16.560 like cashiers and things like that, or cash registers. I 0:24:16.600 --> 0:24:21.080 should say not cashiers, and uh, you know, we're seeing 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:23.119 more of this sort of approach where you can do 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:27.240 the tap and pay, and that ends up decreasing the 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:32.560 need for sales personnel. Thus, this is a disruptive. It 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:34.400 means that people who would normally be able to get 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:38.320 a job doing that, being a sales representative at a 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.439 retail establishment, they might find it harder to get that 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:44.919 kind of job because there's less need for it. So 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:50.479 sometimes disruptive can mean pretty tough consequences for people, at 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:53.199 least in the short term, until you figure out some 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.040 other place where you have a need that people can 0:24:56.080 --> 0:24:58.719 go and work at and fill that need. Plus they 0:24:58.720 --> 0:25:00.399 can go and you know, get pay aid for the 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:03.520 work they do. So disruptive does not always mean great. 0:25:03.560 --> 0:25:06.080 It might mean great things for that whatever technology is 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:09.960 just doing the disrupting, but it could have other consequences 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:13.840 that roll out to lots of other people. Self checkout 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:17.160 stations is similar in that way. It's also on the list. 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:21.119 It's at number four. Very disruptive. Obviously, if you go 0:25:21.160 --> 0:25:23.239 to a grocery store and you see that there are 0:25:23.240 --> 0:25:26.639 only three lanes open, there's twenty lanes there three of 0:25:26.640 --> 0:25:30.920 them are open with with cashiers and the rest are 0:25:31.119 --> 0:25:35.280 are empty. And it's because these self service lanes have 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:37.440 taken a lot of the load off. You don't need 0:25:37.480 --> 0:25:42.240