xamples of disruptive innovations

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

Innovation

Disrupted market

Notes

8 inch floppy disk drive

14 inch floppy disk drive The floppy disk drive market has had unusually large changes in market share over the past fifty years. According to Clayton M. Christensen's research, the cause of [12] this instability was a repeating pattern of disruptive innovations. For example, in 1981, the old 8 inch drives (used inmini computers) were "vastly superior" to the [9] new 5.25 inch drives (used in desktop computers). However, 8 inch drives were not affordable for the new desktop machines. The simple 5.25 inch drive, assembled from technologically inferior "off-the-shelf" components,[9] was an "innovation" only in the sense that it was new. However, as this market grew and the drives improved, the companies that manufactured them eventually triumphed while many of the existing manufacturers of eight inch drives fell behind.[12]

5.25 inch floppy disk drive

8 inch floppy disk drive

3.5 inch floppy disk drive

5.25 inch floppy disk drive

Bernoulli driveand Zip drive

3.5 inch floppy disk drive

CDs and USB flash drives

Bernoulli driveand Zip drive

Pocket calculator

3.5 Standard Calculator[1]

Worse computing performance and portable[5]

DownloadableDigital media

CDs, DVDs

In the 1990s, the music industry phased out the single, leaving consumers with no means to purchase individual songs. This market was initially filled by illegal peerto-peer file sharing technologies, and then by online retailers such as the iTunes Store and [Link]. This low end disruption eventually undermined the sales of physical, high-cost CDs.[13]

Cloud computing

USB flash drives

While downloadable Digital media displaced CDs and DVDs as a medium for entertainment media, cloud computing displaces the need for local physical media

to store digital data in general.

[citation needed]

Hydraulicexcavators

Cable-operated excavators

Hydraulic excavators were clearly innovative at the time of introduction but they gain widespread use only decades after. However, cable-operated excavators are still used in some cases, mainly for large excavations.[14]

Mini steel mills

Vertically integrated steel mills

By using mostly locally available scrap and power sources these mills can be cost [15] effective even though not large.

Minicomputers

Mainframes

Personal computers

Minicomputers,[Link] processors,Lisp machines

Minicomputers were originally presented as an inexpensive alternative to mainframes and mainframe manufacturers did not consider them a serious threat in their market. Eventually, the market for minicomputers became much larger than the market for mainframes. Similarly, the market for main frames and minicomputers was seriously disrupted by personal computers. Although they were not at all competitive at the time of their introduction in the 1970s, by the mid 1980s they had improved exponentially and could compete directly with the more expensive machines.[citation needed]

Desktop publishing

Traditionalpublishing

Early desktop-publishing systems could not match high-end professional systems in either features or quality. Nevertheless, they lowered the cost of entry to the publishing business, and economies of scale eventually enabled them to match, and then surpass, the functionality of the older dedicated publishing systems.[citation
needed]

Computer printers

Offset printing

Offset printing has a high overhead cost, but very low unit cost compared to computer printers, and superior quality. But as printers, especiallylaser printers, have improved in speed and quality, they have become increasingly useful for creating documents in limited issues.[citation needed]

Digital photography

Chemical photography

Early digital cameras suffered from low picture quality and resolution and long shutter lag. Quality and resolution are no longer major issues and shutter lag is much less than it used to be. The convenience of small memory cards and portable hard drives that hold hundreds or thousands of pictures, as well as the lack of the need to develop these pictures, also helped. Digital cameras have a high power consumption (but several lightweight battery packs can provide enough power for thousands of pictures). Cameras for classic photography are stand-alone devices. In the same manner, high-resolution digital video recording has replaced film stock, [citation needed] except for high-budget motion pictures.

High speedCMOS video sensors

Photographic film

When first introduced, high speed CMOS sensors were less sensitive, had lower resolution, and cameras based on them had less duration (record time). The advantage of rapid setup time, editing in the camera, and nearly-instantaneous review quickly eliminated 16 mm high speed film systems. CMOS-based cameras also require less power (single phase 110 V AC and a few amps for CMOS, vs. 240 V single- or three-phase at 20-50 A for film cameras). Continuing advances have overtaken 35 mm film and are challenging 70 mm film applications.[citation needed]

Steamboats

Sailing ships

The first steamships were deployed on inland waters where sailing ships were less effective, instead of on the higher profit margin seagoing routes. Hence steamships originally only competed in traditional shipping lines' "worst" markets.[citation needed]

Telephones

Telegraphy

When Western Union infamously declined to purchase Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patents for $100,000, their highest-profit market was long-distance telegraphy. Telephones were only useful for very local calls. Short-distance telegraphy barely existed as a market segment, which explains Western Union's [citation needed] decision.

Automobiles

Rail transport

At the beginning of the 20th century, rail (including streetcars) was the fastest and most cost-efficient means of land transportation for goods and passengers in

industrialized countries. The first cars, buses and trucks were used for local transportation in suburban areas, where they often replaced streetcars and industrial tracks. As highways expanded, medium- and later long-distance transports were relocated to road traffic, and some railways closed down. As rail traffic has a lower ton-kilometer cost, but a higher investment and operating cost than road traffic, rail is still preferred for large-scale bulk cargo (such as minerals).

Private jet

Supersonic transport

The Concorde aircraft has so far been the only supersonic airliner in extensive commercial traffic. However, it catered to a small customer segment, which could later afford small private sub-sonic jets. The loss of speed was compensated by flexibility and a more direct routing (i.e. no need to go through a hub). Supersonic flight is also banned above inhabited land, due to sonic booms. The Concorde [16] service was withdrawn in 2003.

Plastic

Metal, wood, glass etc.

Bakelite and other early plastics had very limited use - their main advantages were electric insulation and low cost. New forms had advantages such as transparency, elasticity and combustibility. In the early 21st century, plastics can be used for nearly all household items previously made of metal, wood and glass.[citation needed]

Light-emitting diodes

Light bulbs

A LED is significantly smaller and less power-consuming than a light bulb. The first optical LEDs were weak, and only useful as indicator lights. Later models could be used for indoor lighting, and future ones will probably be strong enough to serve as street lights. Incandescent light bulbs are being phased out in many countries.

Digital synthesizer

Electronic organ andpiano

Synthesizers were initially low-cost, low-weight alternatives to electronic organs and acoustic pianos. Today's synthesizers feature many automated functions and have [citation needed] replaced them for home and hobby users.

LCD

CRT

The first liquid crystal displays (LCD) were monochromatic and had low resolution. They were used in watches and other handheld devices, but during the early 2000s

these (and other planar technologies) largely replaced the dominant cathode ray tube (CRT) technology for computer displays and television sets, although CRT technologies have improved with advances like true-flat panels and digital controls [citation needed] only recently.

Digital calculator

Mechanical calculator

Facit AB used to dominate the European market for calculators, but did not adapt [17] digital technology, and failed to compete with digital competitors.

Ultrasound

Radiography(X-ray imaging)

Ultrasound technology is disruptive relative to X-ray imaging. Ultrasound was a new-market disruption. None of the X-ray companies participated in ultrasound until [18] they acquired major ultrasound equipment companies.

Notes: Higher Education is an industry that has experienced massive price and cost increases in recent decades. Tuition and fees at U.S. public and private colleges have risen by an average of 439 percent after allowing for inflation (from 1982 [19] through 2007). This challenge has mandated a new definition of quality from the perspective of students so that their choice for higher education is valuable, efficient, and practical.[20] There are a number of disruptive innovations that are providing students with alternatives to the traditional University approach, including: Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Blended Learning, and Tightly structured, career-focused learning. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Internet-based teaching programs Higher Education designed to handle thousands of students simultaneously, in part using the tactics of social-networking websites. MOOCs had exploded into the academic consciousness in summer 2011, when a free artificial-intelligence course offered by Stanford University in California attracted 160,000 students from around the world 23,000 of whom finished it.[21] Blended Learning: Blended learning is a form of education in which student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction. During the last decade, the National Center for Academic Transformation has worked with hundreds of public universities to redesign individual courses around a

blended model of education that takes greater advantage of technology.

The average cost reduction from blended learning in higher

education has been 39 percent, with some course costs reduced as much as 75 percent.[23] Tightly structured, career-focused learning: noted political and cultural commentator David Brooks recently predicted that the future of universities is in practical knowledge.
[24]

Noted education entrepreneurs such as Howard A.

Tullman are building colleges with this very aim in mind. These colleges, like Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy and Kendall College, are training students in high-value skills and technologies through hands-on, team and project based, real world assignments.
[25]

These types of colleges have a

unique education goal, what Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes as making every graduate innovation ready, or ready to add value to whatever they do.[26] This type of career-focused learning is also disruptive in that it does not focus on degree attainment as the sole measure of success. According to Clayton Christensen, Degrees are a proxy for skill attainment, but they are far from a perfect one, as seen in the amount of retraining that employers do as well as the current unemployment figures. Real outcomes and real masteryas often shown in work portfolios for exampleare more important.[27] Traditionally edited general encyclopedias have been displaced by Wikipedia, the free, non-profit, community-edited online encyclopedia. Former market leader Encyclopdia Britannica ended print production after 244 years in 2012.[28] Britannica's price of over $1000, its physical size of dozens of volumes, its weight of over 100 pounds, and its update cycles lasting a year or longer were all annulled by Wikipedia. Microsoft'sEncarta, a 1993 entry into professionally edited digital encyclopedias, was once a major rival to Britannica but was discontinued in [29] 2009. Wikipedia's lack of price, unlimited size and instant updates are the primary challenges for profitable competition in the consumer market.

Wikipedia

Traditional encyclopedias