The Wii: Disruptive innovation
We’ve heard it for weeks already: the Wii is for those who need fun, the PS3 is for those who want power. This generalization that supposes that a particular console is best for a particular type of person seems to be the common ground that extinguishes Internet message board infernos.
Jack Uldrich of The Motley Fool looks at the highly combustible PS3-Wii mix in the market right now from a different perspective. For one thing, Uldrich refers heavily to a book by Clayton Christensen titled The Innovator’s Solution. Uldrich likens the Wii to a something that Christensen like to call a ‘disruptive innovation.’
As per Christensen’s definition, disruptive innovations don’t really offer anything that’s more powerful or refined than existing products. Instead, disruptive innovations impress customers by making an existing concept more convenient and easy to use…like the Wii.
The Wii, being the disruptive little thing that it is, is expected to make inroads into the vast, untapped group of people who either don’t play video games on a regular basis. Just look at Walt Mossberg’s write-up in The Wall Street Journal. In it, he quoted a college athlete saying that the Wii allowed her to feel coordinated playing a video game for the first time in her life, and that she might actually buy the system.
Uldrich stresses that because Sony has focused on satisfying their already existing market of gamers that want more power and more features, Sony now faces the problem of having to now figure out how to create products for this new “non-consumption” market of first-time gamers.
Of course as good as his article starts, the way he ends it might make a few informed eye-brows raise. He says:
as the Wii continues to be upgraded and improved over time with better graphics and new capabilities, it could also begin to woo hardcore gamers. That won’t just be a dilemma — it could be a very big problem for Sony, which is still losing money on the sale of every PS3.
The Wii to get a hardware overhaul? Hmnnnnnnnn.
Via The Motley Fool
We’ve heard it for weeks already: the Wii is for those who need fun, the PS3 is for those who want power. This generalization that supposes that a particular console is best for a particular type of person seems to be the common ground that extinguishes Internet message board infernos.
Jack Uldrich of The Motley Fool looks at the highly combustible PS3-Wii mix in the market right now from a different perspective. For one thing, Uldrich refers heavily to a book by Clayton Christensen titled The Innovator’s Solution. Uldrich likens the Wii to a something that Christensen like to call a ‘disruptive innovation.’
As per Christensen’s definition, disruptive innovations don’t really offer anything that’s more powerful or refined than existing products. Instead, disruptive innovations impress customers by making an existing concept more convenient and easy to use…like the Wii.
The Wii, being the disruptive little thing that it is, is expected to make inroads into the vast, untapped group of people who either don’t play video games on a regular basis. Just look at Walt Mossberg’s write-up in The Wall Street Journal. In it, he quoted a college athlete saying that the Wii allowed her to feel coordinated playing a video game for the first time in her life, and that she might actually buy the system.
Uldrich stresses that because Sony has focused on satisfying their already existing market of gamers that want more power and more features, Sony now faces the problem of having to now figure out how to create products for this new “non-consumption” market of first-time gamers.
Of course as good as his article starts, the way he ends it might make a few informed eye-brows raise. He says:
as the Wii continues to be upgraded and improved over time with better graphics and new capabilities, it could also begin to woo hardcore gamers. That won’t just be a dilemma — it could be a very big problem for Sony, which is still losing money on the sale of every PS3.
The Wii to get a hardware overhaul? Hmnnnnnnnn.
Via The Motley Fool