Poll: What was the most important technology product of 2010? | Tech Sanity Check | TechRepublic.com via kwout
Jason Hiner the Editor in Chief of TechRepublic offered this quick poll to the readers of his Tech Sanity blog and while I am not surprised by the results I am surprised at how limited the choice are for innovative technologies. If you really look at the rest of the list you will see that the iPad is really the only technology on the list that could even be described as a disruptive innovation. The other smart phones on the list are simply copies of the iPhone and one could argue these phones don’t even qualify as examples of sustaining innovation because they only provide additional choice in this market space. Furthermore, at a response rate of 2% the Windows 7 phone is clearly not even in the race. Similarly the Google Chrome Notebook should not be considered innovative because it is simply a laptop running a Linux based OS. Other than coming from Google there is nothing innovative there at all.
I also have to agree with Hiner on his caveat in choosing the iPad as the most innovative technology of 2010. I know from reading Hiner’s blog post The truth about iPad: It’s only good for two things and other articles that he is a skeptical supporter of the iPad. It is a 1.0 technology and he argues that it is really only good for two things: reading and viewing and multitouch interaction. I use the iPad daily and wouldn’t want to work without one but it is a very immature technology. It does hold enormous promise and most importantly as a truly disruptive technology it has, as Hiner aptly states:
revealed how tablets can replace netbooks and laptops for light computing while also serving as e-readers and media players.
Disruptive innovations do come into the market place at a 1.0 level and often are not as powerful and feature rich as the mature technologies that they replace but the key fact is that they do change people attitudes and actions. It is clear that the iPad does this. It will be interesting to see how 2011 shapes up with the release of the upgraded iPad and hopefully more competition from the imitators. As these technologies mature and competition increases we should continue to see the impact of this latest example of disruptive innovation.
