The technology adoption curve is a theory that illustrates the different steps people go through when adopting a new product. The length of time an adapter takes to proceed from one step to another can vary widely. In addition, numerous personal factors can affect each adopter’s experience, making it difficult to predict the rate at which a given individual will adopt a new idea.
- Innovators are not afraid of being experimental as they spend most of their efforts trying out the product. They are typically tech-savvy people with high risk tolerance who want to explore options and try things out before anyone else does. Innovators also happen to enjoy good fortune as they tend to be hands on with the latest gadgets and risks in investing in them.
- Early adopters are people who recognize the value of a new product and see the potential in it. They base their decisions on what is socially acceptable and widely practiced within their community. For example, to buy a car before knowing how to drive would be a foolish decision for an early adopter because it would go against social norms.
Early adopters are generally the first people to buy new products, but they may also be highly opinionated about what technology should look like. They spread information about a product to their peers and are willing to provide assistance, but they are less driven by newness than innovators are.
- The Early Majority usually adopts an innovation after seeing that it has been accepted by the general public or by people they are closely associated with. In other words, they wait until something becomes mainstream before adopting it themselves. They tend to make purchasing decisions based on the needs of their family and friends rather than personal interests or trends.
The majority of users will adopt a technology after it has been accepted and endorsed by the early majority.
- The Late Majority is made up of traditionalists who feel most comfortable with the tried-and-tested. They are also generally skeptical of new ideas and don’t care much for change. Buying decisions are made with caution, taking into account what the mainstream public is doing to decide whether they would be safe or not if they adopted it themselves.
- The Laggards only adopt an innovation as a last resort when everything else has failed them. They tend to be older people who deliberate over each purchase extremely carefully as they typically do not have the resources that others may have, such as disposable income or spare time to explore new products and services.
Laggards are the last people to adopt a new product or service, typically because they have limited resources or limited interest in adopting new technologies. In some cases, laggards may be unfamiliar with the technologies they are supposed to use.
- The technology adoption curve can be used to predict when specific individuals are likely to adopt a new product, but it is often difficult because people take different amounts of time to progress through each step in the adoption process. An individual’s path over time may also vary from the one shown in this curve, as people can move from one stage to another more than once.
Although there is no explicit consensus on the length of time for each stage, many technology companies use the five-stage “asm” model:
- Awareness, interest, desire, conviction and action. The time each of these stages takes to complete varies among individuals as well as the different factors that influence them (e.g., location of adopter or need for compatibility).
Technology adoption curve has many limitations which make the process difficult to predict, including:
1. Personal factors that may have an effect on when a person is ready to adopt a new product, such as age, income level and social factors.
2. Availability of viable alternatives that can slow or prevent adoption in some situations.
3. Inaccurate information that may cause people to delay the adoption process.
4. Hesitancy to adopt a new idea, even if it appears to be better than existing options.
5. Not every potential buyer has the resources and opportunity to obtain and learn about technology, so some groups will always be disproportionately represented in each stage of the process.
6. The existence of disruptive technologies, which are innovations that create new markets or disrupt existing ones.
Nothing is perfect, not even technology because technology is constantly evolving so is human, and that is why it’s the best combination.