Off Topic: Nintendo on the latest 'technical divide'
Great work is being done to narrow the gap between the technical haves and the have-nots across the planet. At MIT, Professor Nicholas Negroponte seeks to equip every child in the developing world with a laptop. In Kenya, the government is supporting assembly of inexpensive PCs as part of university curricula, ultimately designating those computers for distribution throughout the African continent.
At the same time, on the most granular level, I wonder if a similar technical divide exists inside your own home. One person is probably expected to provide solutions when it's time to install the wireless network, redirect the satellite dish, or retrieve a lost document. The have-nots sit and wait.
Several years ago, we noticed this same kind of dichotomy beginning to separate active core consumers from potential consumers in my own industry, video game entertainment. While ardent players reliably responded to ever-advancing technology and complexity, those same attributes consistently chipped off potential new players from the total market, narrowing the consumers into a smaller niche.
For the frustrated, it simply wasn't worth the investment of time or money in the midst of a life ever-busier with work, family and other obligations. The players happily jousting inside the castle walls didn't see the moat outside widening.
For us, this raised two fundamental challenges that I believe now, or someday soon, will confront almost every consumer-facing technology business. First, how do you satisfy the core while still expanding appeal? And second, how do you leverage your strengths against entirely untapped audiences--to the so-called "blue oceans" in popular marketing speak?
The snap answer is obvious--"innovate!" It's a popular prescription, but not a simple one to follow. Harvard professor Clayton Christensen outlines one distinct course of action for innovation: Provide a new product that actually underperforms on an established industry metric for "progress," and substitute an alternative that typically is smaller, less expensive and easier to use.
Read the full article here...Reggie Fils-Aime - President, Nintendo of America
May 9, 2007
Source: CNET News