Sunday, January 3, 2010

In 1894, when Italian scientist Guglielmo marconi invented a way to send messages through the air , the Italian government turned down his offer of first rights because it was no use for this technology. After all,marconi crude prototype could only send signals a hundred yards- hardly a match for the increasingly popular telephone. Who would have known such a weak transmission method would pave the way for everything from television to mobile phones? Even now, 100 years later, wireless technology is still opening up new markets and changing the way governments and businesses communicate and operate.

Marconi's wireless invention represents what some historians call "disruptive technologies". These are technologies that not only create new industries, but eventually change the world. Disruptive technologies are vital to the innovation and progress of human society.

In 1997 , Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen first publicised the term " disruptive technology" in his bestselling book, the innovation dilemma.

Christensen distinguishes between two types of emerging technologies. Those that do not result in the collapse of existing companies are reffered to as sustaining technologies, as they improve the performance along the dimensions that mainstream users demand, How ever , disruptive technologies , as the term suggests, are those that render existing technology redundant and expandable. Disruptive technologies that is in use. These innovations drastically change the course by which users connect, engage, and relate with the world and transform society.

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