Disruptive Technology: A Definition

What is a Disruptive Technology?

Disruption often means interruption, a break in the continuity of action; throwing a monkey wrench in the works; challenging the status quo. Whenever a new technology comes along that improves or replaces the existing system, it is a disruptive technology. More often then not the signifigance here is in the impact of the technology rather then just the technology itself. Think of the impact of placing a combustion engine inside a wheeled-vehicle; pre-combustion, we rode around in carts attached to horses, and post-combustion horses get to hang out in pastures all day.

Disruptive technologies cause a change or paradigm shift in business practices, markets and commerce, and even consumers' lives. However, disruptive technologies do not always wholly replace the existing technology because it can adapt and the two technologies can evolve together. Is the Internet a disruptive technology?

A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or product in the market. Disruptive innovations can be broadly classified into lower-end and new-market disruptive innovations. A new-market disruptive innovation is often aimed at non-consumption, whereas a lower-end disruptive innovation is aimed at mainstream customers who were ignored by established companies. Sometimes, a disruptive technology comes to dominate an existing market by either filling a role in a new market that the older technology could not fill (as more expensive, lower capacity but smaller-sized hard disks did for newly developed notebook computers in the 1980s) or by successively moving up-market through performance improvements until finally displacing the market incumbents (as digital photography has begun to replace film photography).

By contrast, "sustaining technology or innovation" improves product performance of established products. Sustaining technologies are often incremental however they can also be radical or discontinuous.

Disruptive technology, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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