Will the real ‘early adopter’ of technology, please stand up?

The best thing about my generation is the fact - we have seen much more technological advances and innovations than any generations before.

The introduction of Video Cassette Recorder, Colour Televisions, Personal Computers, Internet, WWWs, Pagers, Mobile Phones, DVRs, Ipods, MP3s, etc, etc, etc…

One thing I notice, in my job, is that most of the companies (especially into technology – software/hardware) believes that their primary audience as ‘early adopters’ are the youth… and most of the marketing managers definition of youth happens to be people between the age group of 18- 24… well is this true that the youth will drive the technological product innovation??

By market definition – Early Adopters are those who closely follow the footsteps of Innovators… Early Adopters are usually identified as the one’s that are curious, open to new ideas, integrated into local social system, etc

But, we all know that humans are most inquisitive when they are kids. A child of 5 year is most curious about things around him, and usually everything said, shown, is followed by an ask “why?” A youth is happier in a comfort zone – and usually it is friends and peers.

You would find that most of time a youth retorts with – why not? So what??

The Early adopters need to be identified by their state of mind. The attributes might / might not be limited by the age group…. And a generation that has been brought up by a staple of innovations year on year, would have been ‘conditioned’ to it…. The natural ‘response’ to new technological ‘stimulus’ would be acceptance…

My take is that the generation that has seen the technological innovations through out their teen-age and youth are the ones that would be receptive to newer technological advances, and hence the natural choice of being an ‘early adopter’ of
technology…

We have been there, done that, and now eager for more :)

What say??

Cheers

Santosh

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