Technology Adoption Life Cycle

The Technology Adoption Life Cycle is viewed as a bell-curve, representing the opportunity to sell products into a given market. Moving from left to right, one sixth of the curve is the Early Market, one third is the Early Majority, one third is the Late Majority, and one sixth is the Laggards.

(from http://www.windthrope.com/Impact_of_Short_life_cycle.htm)

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The customers in the Early Market are Innovators and Visionaries.

• Innovators are technology enthusiasts, the first to try every cool new gadget and gizmo. Innovators are essential to the development of new markets because they validate the usefulness of new technology. Innovators rarely control significant budgets, so they often get new products for free or at steeply discounted prices. Innovators make up a very small percentage of the early market.

• Visionaries are the first real customers in the TALC. They are on a mission. They can and will pay large amounts of money for new technology that fits into their product. Visionaries will see ways to apply your new technology that you probably never imagined. This means that they will require you to extend and enhance your product to meet their needs. Visionaries are often following an almost impossible dream. They can be very difficult customers to manage.

• The customers in the Early Majority are Pragmatists. Pragmatists represent the largest source of revenue in the TALC. They are competent consumers of technology. They will only buy proven technology from market leaders. Once they buy from you, they are very loyal.

• The customers in the Late Majority are Conservatives. There are as many Conservatives as Pragmatists in a given market. Conservatives come late to the game, so they expect very mature technology at commodity prices. There is still money to be made here, but it comes in much smaller baskets.

• The customers in the Laggard segment are Skeptics. Skeptics will never intentionally be your customer. They will buy technology only when it is buried so deep in a product that they don't know it is there. Their role in the TALC is to discourage every possible application of your product.

See also CrossingTheChasm.