case_studies_6


 * David Liddle Interview:**

1. Enthusiast Phase: Enthusiast users love and appreciate the technology in an aesthetic way. They are not afraid of a product being difficult to use – in fact, this may augment the pleasure they get in using it. They love to exploit it. When the 35mm camera was first used, it was for astronauts and it nearly required a PhD in optics in order to use it.

2. Professional Phase: Once enough enthusiasts have their hands on a product/technology, one of them will decide that they can actually do something quite practical with it in their work. The 35mm morphed from being something highly expensive to being a camera that professional photographers could use. Suddenly, the controls of the camera became stabilized, although they were still manual.

3. Consumer Phase: After a product has built up big enough volumes, it begins to reach a price point where it becomes practical and cheap enough for consumers to buy. By this point, the priorities for the product have significantly changed. One of the most common changes is that the controls all become automatic. With today’s 35mm camera, even a chimpanzee could take a good photo, as it automatically reads the film, sets exposure, and sets the flash.

Another consumer product that has gone through this development quite recently is the BlackBerry. First, it was a highly specialized smart phone that was kind of complicated to use and set up with uses that were definitely aimed at pleasing the enthusiast. Afterwards, it became not only practical but a necessity for anyone in business – communication, e-mails, calendar. We are now reaching the consumer phase where everyone is getting a BlackBerry. Let’s just put it this way - even I have one for no practical or purposeful reason.