Tag Archives: Technology

What does it take for a new platform to become the norm?

Some fine lessons here on why 3D TV – after an exciting start 7 years ago- has expired without ever becoming ‘the new normal’.

http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-tv-is-dead-2017-1

To make that critical shift, a new platform must have a ‘certain magical mix’ of:

  • improved performance or experience over current/new breaking formats;
  • a sufficient, unique supplier content feed;
  • premium but affordable pricing (delicate balancing act!);
  • doesn’t hurt if it gets positive ‘buzz’ eg celeb support; and
  • ..is relatively free from inhibiting negative news/reviews.

3D didn’t cut it, but 4K just might. Consider why betamax, LaserDiscs, Digital tape etc failed to become the norm, but CD’s did. Why Clean Diesel seems doomed to lose out to hydrogen /hybrid engines. Streetcars seem posed to lose out to ‘clean buses’. Why Natural Gas replaced Oil home heating furnaces. Why Netflix replaced Blockbuster-type video stores. Why Blackberry smartphones lost out to those by Apple & Google. Why AltaVista, WebCrawler & Yahoo search lost out to Google. And why Bing hasn’t got Google shaking in its boots.

SL