Technology adoption and its translation into a commercial success
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
We see it happening around us all the time - a new technological breakthrough is announced; reams are written about how their commercial adoption will kill an existing industry soon with the seductive promise of a brighter future for the entire ecosystem of its producers & consumers - only for this new technology to wither away from our collective consciousness. Think automobiles running on unconventional energy sources; RFID applications; Cloud computing - and you will get the drift.
An article in the Harvard Business Review studies this phenomenon and explains why it happens. In short, it argues that it is never about the new technology versus the old, instead it is about the clash of two ecosystem's - one that is required to support the new technology and the one that exists currently while supporting the existing technology.