How To Ride The Rise And Fall Of Digital Devices

Our digital era has witnessed the ascent and decline of a stunning number of new devices: The PDA, the digital camera, and the dedicated MP3 player have all risen to prominence only to collapse into specialty niches in a way that prior generations of technology did not. Device manufacturers care about this change in how technology penetrates the market because they need to adapt. But in a digitally disruptive era, brands and marketers that bet their digital customer relationships on new devices and platforms like wearables and home automation tech will need to manage this vicissitude. In this report, we use the case study of the dedicated eReader — as classic an example of this rise and fall phenomenon as any we have covered — to identify the rules of the rise and fall. We've then applied them to the next round of technology about to land on consumers: health and fitness wearables, augmented and virtual reality displays, home-based 3D printing, and even drones.