When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone no one cared. After all, why talk into a metal tube when you could go visit or write a letter? Even crazier was the idea of talking to someone in another town?
When the fax machine was first introduced no one thought it was necessary. An automobile? Why, when horses could carry you. The internet? Even those that saw its potential were surprised it took so long to catch on. Nearly every invention fails to gain interest as quickly as the creators expect.
As we try to initiate new services like 3D modeling and Document Management, there are a lot of frustrations and struggles with the speed of adaptation. So what can we do?
Edwin Schlossberg in his book Interactive Excellence: Defining and Developing New Standards for the Twenty-first Century, studies this adaptation gap by explained how creators fail because value-focused marketing and training are the last consideration in the product cycle.
Educating the audience to be able to fully use and appreciate new technology is often the LAST thing inventors consider.— Edwin Schlossberg, Interactive Excellence
Obviously, one reason is inventors are poor marketers and teaching people is far outside their core competencies; but if we look deeper we find that it goes much further down the product development chain. It seems investors, distribution, managers, and development people also suffer from education aversion. Everyone down the chain assumes everyone else understands the product and is educating the marketplace on "accurate" uses and benefits.
By the time the first-to-market companies figure out what they've done wrong, they've ruined their positioning and reputation for the very creation they invented. Often, the failure is not the creation but the method of educating the marketplace the value and ways it can improve lives.
One major company actually holds back release of new products until first-to-market companies fail. They sit back watching the frustrations, stumbling, and denegation of reputation, then swoop in to become the hero with all the answers. During the wait they invest in people structures with tight core competencies, defined roles and a precise market strategy.
With Apple's recent announcement of the iPhone, I bet Alexander Graham Bell is looking down with a big smile on his face.