Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition

Our default model for how to develop a high-tech market is almost—but not quite—right.

Why haven’t we been able to apply these same skills to high tech? And what is it going to take for us to finally get it right?

deep chord among experienced high-tech managers. Countless readers have told me that, although they valued the material in the book, it really didn’t tell them anything they didn’t know already. Rather it captured what had been for them scattered intuitions and rueful learnings and put them into a coherent set of frameworks that could be used for future decision making.

When are you going to buy one?
The Technology Adoption Life Cycle
Your answer to the preceding question will tell a lot about how you relate to the Technology Adoption Life Cycle, a model for understanding the acceptance of new products. If your answer is “Not until hell freezes over,” you are probably a very late adopter of technology, what we call in the model a laggard. If your answer is “When I have seen electric cars prove themselves and when there are enough service stations on the road,” you might be a middle-of-the-road adopter, or in the model, the early majority. If you say, “Not until most people have made the switch and it becomes really inconvenient to drive a gasoline car,” you are probably more of a follower, a member of the late majority. If, on the other hand, you want to be the first one on your block with an electric car, you are apt to be an innovator or an early adopter

When a high-tech venture fails, everyone goes down with the ship—​​​​​​​not only the investors but also the engineers, the manufacturers, the president, and the receptionist. All those extra hours worked in hopes of cashing in on an equity option—​​​​​​​all gone.

“​​​​​​​If Mark Zuckerberg can be a billionaire . ​​​​​. ​​​​​.”​​​​​​​ For indeed, the great thing about high tech is that, despite numerous disappointments, it still holds out the siren lure of a legitimate get-rich-quick opportunity.

Every truly innovative high-tech product starts out as a fad—something with no known market value or purpose but with “great properties” that generate a lot of enthusiasm within an “in crowd” of early adopters. That’s the early market

the relationship between an early market and a mainstream market is not unlike the relationship between a fad and a trend

This book is unabashedly about and written specifically for marketing within high-tech enterprises

A successful crossing is how high-tech fortunes are made; failure in the attempt is how they are lost