A decision that proved disastrous. The technological changes that damage established companies are usually not, technologically speaking, radical or difficult. The technological changes that damage established companies are usually not radical or difficult technologically speaking. The performance attributes that existing customers value improve at such a rapid rate that the new technology can later invade those established markets. We need to look at the performance trajectories of technological innovations in order to explain the difference in impact they have on their industry.
Every industry has a critical performance trajectory.
Different types of technological innovations affect performance trajectories in different ways. Sustaining technologies maintain the rate of improvement giving customers something more or better in the attributes they already value. An example is the thin film components in disk-drives which replaced conventional ferrite heads and oxide disks enabling information to be recorded more densely. Disruptive technologies introduce a different package of attributes that customers have historically valued, and often perform far worse along one or two dimensions that are of particular importance to those customers. As a rule, mainstream customers are unwilling to use a disruptive product in applications they know and understand.