Relevance of Technology

Technology is an enabler

Many people mistakenly accept as true with it is era which drives innovation. Yet from the definitions above, that is in reality no longer the case. It is possibility which defines innovation and technology which permits innovation. Think of the traditional "Build a better mousetrap" example taught in maximum business schools. 

You might have the era to construct a higher mousetrap, but if you have no mice or the old mousetrap works well, there is no possibility after which the technology to build a better one will become irrelevant. On the other hand, in case you are overrun with mice then the possibility exists to innovate a product the usage of your generation.

Another instance, one with which I am intimately familiar, are patron electronics startup agencies. I've been related to both people who succeeded and those that failed. Each possessed particular main part technologies. The distinction turned into opportunity. 

Those that failed couldn't discover the opportunity to broaden a meaningful innovation using their era. In fact to continue to exist, these companies needed to morph frequently into some thing definitely one of a kind and if they were lucky they could take gain of derivatives in their authentic technology. More regularly than not, the unique technology wound up in the scrap heap. 

Technology, accordingly, is an enabler whose ultimate cost proposition is to make upgrades to our lives. In order to be relevant, it wishes to be used to create improvements which can be driven by using opportunity.

Technology as a aggressive benefit?

Many businesses listing a generation as one of their competitive blessings. Is this valid? In a few instances yes, however In most cases no.

Technology develops alongside  paths - an evolutionary course and a progressive path.

A modern technology is one which enables new industries or permits solutions to issues that had been formerly now not possible. Semiconductor generation is a great instance. Not only did it spawn new industries and products, however it spawned other innovative technologies - transistor era, included circuit technology, microprocessor generation. All which offer many of the products and offerings we consume nowadays. 

But is semiconductor generation a competitive advantage? Looking on the wide variety of semiconductor companies that exist today (with new ones forming every day), I'd say no longer. How about microprocessor technology? Again, no. 

Lots of microprocessor agencies accessible. How approximately quad center microprocessor technology? Not as many companies, but you have Intel, AMD, ARM, and a host of businesses building custom quad middle processors (Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, and many others). So again, no longer a good deal of a aggressive advantage. Competition from competing technology and easy get admission to to IP mitigates the perceived aggressive gain of any particular era. Android vs iOS is a good instance of ways this works. Both running systems are derivatives of UNIX. 

Apple used their generation to introduce iOS and won an early market benefit. However, Google, utilizing their variant of Unix (a competing era), caught up fairly quickly. The motives for this lie not in the underlying era, but in how the goods made possible with the aid of the ones technologies were delivered to marketplace (loose vs. Walled lawn, and so forth.) and the differences inside the strategic visions of each enterprise.

Evolutionary generation is one that incrementally builds upon the base innovative technology. But by means of it's very nature, the incremental exchange is simpler for a competitor to healthy or leapfrog. Take for instance wireless cellular phone technology. 

Company V brought 4G merchandise previous to Company A and whilst it could have had a quick time period gain, as soon as Company A delivered their 4G merchandise, the benefit because of generation disappeared. The client went again to deciding on Company A or Company V primarily based on rate, provider, insurance, whatever, but not based on era. Thus technology could have been applicable within the short term, but within the long time, have become beside the point.

In cutting-edge global, technologies generally tend to speedy end up commoditized, and inside any unique generation lies the seeds of its own demise.

Technology's Relevance

This article become written from the prospective of an end client. From a developer/clothier standpoint matters get murkier. The further one is eliminated from the technology, the much less applicable it will become. To a developer, the era can appear to be a product. An allowing product, but a product despite the fact that, and for this reason it is extraordinarily applicable. 

Bose makes use of a proprietary sign processing technology to permit merchandise that meet a fixed of marketplace requirements and for this reason the era and what it enables is relevant to them. Their clients are more worried with how it sounds, what's the charge, what's the pleasant, etc., and now not so much with how it is completed, as a result the technology used is a lot less relevant to them.

Recently, I was concerned in a discussion on Google+ approximately the new Motorola X phone. A lot of the human beings on the ones posts slammed the telephone for various motives - price, locked boot loader, etc. There were additionally masses of knocks at the truth that it didn't have a quad-core processor like the S4 or HTC One which have been priced similarly. 

What they did not hold close is that whether or not the producer used 1, 2, four, or eight cores in the long run makes no distinction as long as the cellphone can supply a aggressive (or even first-class of class) feature set, functionality, fee, and person enjoy. The iPhone is one of the maximum successful telephones ever produced, and but it runs on a twin-middle processor. It nevertheless can provide one of the pleasant user experiences in the marketplace. The functions which can be enabled by way of the technology are what are applicable to the customer, now not the technology itself.

The relevance of era consequently, is as an enabler, now not as a product function or a competitive gain, or any myriad of other things - an enabler. Looking on the Android running system, it is an outstanding piece of software era, and but Google offers it away. Why? Because standalone, it does not anything for Google. Giving it away lets in other groups to apply their expertise to build services and products which then act as enablers for Google's services and products. To Google, it is in which the real fee is.