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04.08

Early Adopters

By Donald Christiansen

Early adopters are valuable to those who introduce innovative high-tech products. These early customers may be either individuals or corporations. It is estimated that perhaps 10 to15 percent of the individual purchasers of a product fall into the early-adopter category. These buyers are characteristically venturesome and well off — willing to take the risk of a yet-to-be-perfected product in exchange for the excitement and bragging rights of being first on the block.

When Apple introduced the iPhone it was banking on early adopters to insure a powerful launch. Marketers rely on these enthusiastic customers for feedback — they are usually not reluctant to compliment or complain about particular features. They also help dispel anxiety among hesitant buyers in their social circle, and often serve as mentors for later purchasers in the use of innovative new products.

Although early adopters expect to pay a premium for the initial version of a new product, some nevertheless may be upset when the price is dropped too soon. The iPhone was introduced at a price of $599, and was reduced to $399 just two months later. When the early birds complained, Apple offered them a $100 store credit on other Apple products. In his message to the first buyers informing them of the credit, Steve Jobs nevertheless admonished them: “... being in technology for 30-plus years, I can attest to the fact that the technology road is bumpy. There is always change and improvement, and there is always someone who bought a product before a particular cutoff date, and misses the new price, or the new operating system, or the new whatever. This is life in the technology lane. If you always wait for the next price cut or to buy the new improved model, you’ll never buy any technology product because there is always something better and less expensive on the horizon.” Jobs’ message seemed better directed to the group of purchasers who follow the early adopters — labeled the “early majority” and accounting for some 35 percent of the ultimate customer base. There is often a time delay, or “chasm” as the marketers term it, between the early adopters and the early majority during which caution and skepticism of the latter group must be overcome.

Precautions

Early adoption does not always take place at a rapid pace. The sales of early television sets were understandably slowed for lack of programming. To be successful, any communication-related product is dependent on the network in which it will be embedded. The old “build a better mousetrap” adage notwithstanding, early adopters do not automatically congregate at an innovator’s doorstep. Chester Carlson’s electrostatic printer (Xerography) was invented in 1938, introduced to the public in 1948, and finally caught on circa 1960, some 22 years after Carlson’s inspired invention.

Though early adopters are relied upon to help define operating or human interface deficiencies so they can be quickly corrected, this expectation may not always materialize. The feedback from early adopters of software-oriented innovations may not be as reliable as those for hardware-based products. For example, Second Life, the highly-hyped virtual community, after a glorious initial bloom, seemed to wither as the anticipated early majority of users failed to materialize. Michael Rogers, an MSNBC columnist, noted that later customers found it time consuming and baffling. Might it be that the early adopters in this case were too similar to Second Life’s developers, and sympathetic to its deficiencies? Brad Feld, a technology venture capitalist, notes that early adopters of Web 2.0 offerings are “highly connected geeks with short attention spans, high levels of curiosity, and a penchant for easy distraction by the next shiny thing.” And a respondent to Feld’s blog asserted that “the first 25,000 users aren’t only irrelevant — they’re potentially poisonous. If the developers listen to the feedback of the early adopters . . . they’ll take the product/service down a path that increases the geek factor rather than down-geeking the offering... It’s a difficult thing to listen to your initial users, and do the opposite of what they recommend.”

The corporate early adopter

In the corporate case, the innovation or innovative product may originate internally in its own R&D lab or it may be offered by a vendor. In either case, the opportunity to become an early adopter might be rejected if the innovation threatens an existing product, or if it might cause the obsolescence of high-value manufacturing facilities. To proceed, deep pockets and a forward-looking management willing to accept start-up losses is needed. A publicly-traded company may opt to let a start-up company become the successful adopter of a promising technology, then seek to acquire the startup if the product fits its marketing strategy.

On the other hand, a company may benefit from working in partnership with a particular vendor to incorporate an innovation into its product line, and thus gain a leg up on its competition. In the early 1950s, Hytron (later acquired by CBS), a manufacturer of picture tubes, worked with Corning to produce the first rectangular television picture tube. A customer willing to work in this way with a vendor is also termed a “lighthouse customer,” and is often given preferential treatment in pricing, exclusivity for a given period, and on-site developmental assistance. A current example might be the Microsoft-based Sync, a voice-activated in-car communication system for mobile phones and digital music players exclusive to Ford-Lincoln-Mercury.

Engineers as early adopters

Are engineers early adopters? I believe the answer is generally yes, but nevertheless dependent on their particular job and individual penchant. Researchers and designers who are involved principally in innovative work are expected to be proponents of new technology, if not specific products, almost by definition. But even they may sometimes succumb to N.I.H., the notion of rejecting contrary or competing ideas if they were not-invented-here. Designers, too, may be reluctant to stray from technology and techniques that have served them well. Some manufacturing and measurements engineers who are skilled at using familiar equipment may sometimes follow the rule “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Finally, there are those scientists working close to the limits of knowledge and who would prefer that others run with their discoveries while they continue at the boundaries of scientific understanding. In that regard, the story of two first-time hunters of tigers in the jungle comes to mind. One of them had begun to set up the tent while the other went off to search for tigers. Suddenly the fellow in the tent heard this commotion and a tiger came roaring through the tent flap. “Here’s the first one. You skin him and I’ll go get another,” his partner shouted.

Resources

For more on early adopters, see:

• E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press, 1995.

• D. Norman, The Life-Cycle of a Technology: Why it is so difficult for large corporations to innovate, Nielsen Norman Group Report, 1998.

• G.A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and selling high-tech goods to mainstream customers, HarperBusiness, 1991.

• G.A. Moore, Inside the Tornado: Marketing strategies from Silicon Valley’s cutting edge, HarperBusiness, 1995.

• B. Dear, Early Adopter, www.brianstorm.com, 28 June 2003.

• Early Adopter (section on Amazon.com site that lists new products that might intrigue venturesome customers).
  

Donald Christiansen is the former editor and publisher of IEEE Spectrum and an independent publishing consultant. He can be reached at donchristiansen@ieee.org.