Written by:
Frank Sisco, 30 Mill Road, New Rochelle, NY 10804
Home office - 914.740.4422, Cell - 914.740.4422; Email – ideasmoney@aol.com
www.iphonetapper.com
Copyright 2007 Frank Sisco
"iPhone Tapper - "The iPhone's Early Adopters"
By Frank Sisco, CPA, PFS
(Word count = 681 words (including words for AcrossTheMedia references) plus 59 words for About the Author)
"Early adopters" is a term used to describe people who take a chance on a new trend near its beginning. Often, there are unique characteristics of these consumers as compared with other groups such as "early majority," late majority" and "laggards." (See ATM 1)You may be a laggard for the iPhone but an early adopter of a new style of shoe or hybrid car. Very few people are early adopters across the board. The reason is that being an early adopter, although fun, efficent and intellectually intriguing, can be challenging and in some case alienating.
An informative webpage about early adoption (See ATM1) is quoted here: "When a technological innovation is introduced, not everyone adopts it at the same moment. Rather, there will be innovators and there will also be laggards. Based upon the examination of a large number of studies in innovation diffusion, a researcher, Rogers, proposed a method of categorizing the adopter group at one point into the cycle, such as the following: - (a) innovators (2.5%), (b) early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%). For a technological innovation to take off, the first two groups are obviously the most important ones."
Tuesday night at a diner where I was attending a nonprofit board meeting for the Westchester Center for Creative Aging, I asked the bartender, Hector, to charge my iPhone while I attended the meeting. He graciously did so. When I was ready to leave, he handed me the phone and asked how I liked it. I was ready to launch my evangelistic pitch, being an iPhone lover, when he said "I love it. And so does the chef." It was then I realized that the iPhone has entered the mainstream and that "early adopters" are quickly expanding in number. Now when I'm about in my day, I often run into people who notice my iPhone and have a comment that they are thinking of buying one, or that they know someone who has one. Yesterday, my daughter Kelly told me she chatted with two new acquaintances about iPhones when they noticed hers. How quickly trends take hold when the underlying products are well-designed and have high utility.
Early adopters provide feedback that helps greatly with a product's success or failure. In the case of the iPhone, the feedback of early adopters has been very positive fueling its amazing growth and acceptance in the marketplace. A recent study published in PC Magazine reports that customer satisfaction is "stunning" for the cell phone features as well as the expected iPod features. (See ATM 2).
Early adopters are very important to manufacturers due to the mutually beneficial synergistic relationship. The early adopter gets the double satisfaction of (a) the benefits of the product and (b) the emotional benefits of being one of the initial group of innovative people who appreciate progress even at the risk of being different and apart from the crowd. The manufacturer (or service provider, etc.) satisfies its need of building a cadre of loyal satisfied customers. Apple has been developing this relationship for many years, notably with its Macintosh line of computers and in the last few years with the iPod family of MP3 players. Early adopters often stick with brands from product to product when the experience is good.
Every innovator needs to nurture its early adopters. Take a newly emerging alternative music rock band. The band must cultivate a group of fans that recognize the creativity and excellence of their music. Often the band needs to attract attention by bold, even sometimes odd, behavior. The early adopters of the band take on the mission of promoting the band because by doing so they are promoting their own mission of being different, being a risk taker of liking a brand new something or someone.
Perhaps we should be early adopters in more areas of our lives. With new products. With new services. With new people. Noting ventured, nothing gained.
| AcrossTheMedia references: |
| (ATM 1) - http://www.zonalatina.com/Zldata99.htm |
| (ATM 2) - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2211391,00.asp?sr=hotnews |
| (ATM 3) www.iphonetapper.com for this and 8 prior articles. |
About the author:
Frank Sisco is a businessman who loves finding ways to enhance life through personal technology, and writing about it. You can contact Frank by email at ideasmoney@aol.com or by phone at 914.589.1013 in order to express your opinion or send in questions, comments, or videoclips. He resides in New Rochelle, NY with his wife and daughter.
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