Ideas of the Next Big Thing

Big Bang disruption is a term to describe the phenomenon where new products enter the market and topple incumbents through the creation of better value for customers, but through intense and rapid market penetration, rather than gradual growth. Rather than following the conventional model for diffusion for innovation, a “big bang” could be a sudden success or sudden failure at the point of market entry.

Several distinctions between big bang and disruptive innovation are that products from big bang disruption don’t directly compete with what’s already in the market, and tries to target everyone rather than a market segment. As well, the focus on big bang innovation encompasses all of low cost, differentiation, and customer intimacy/experience, rather than selecting or two of the strategies.

Netflix is one example of big bang disruption. Netflix provided fairly cheap service, which was available on any device with internet access: anytime, anywhere, as much as you want. There was no market segmentation, as everyone with internet was targeted. Netflix did not intent to compete with Blockbuster, but Blockbuster had no choice to declare bankruptcy after not being able to see Netflix’s market takeover coming.

While one of the characteristics of big bang disruption is that it is generally unpredictable, the warning signs of upcoming new developments can be observed. In the session where big bang disruption was present, there was a class discussion on what could be the next big thing, in terms of disruptive technology.

One of the first items brought up was Blockchain, which is seen as a possible game changer for online transactions. It is essentially a public ledger where ‘blocks’ are added to it in a chronological order. The idea would be to make transactions much more direct.

Next was the use of virtual reality (VR) for educational use. While VR has been in development for over 50 years, it has yet to enter the mainstream market. However, once the technology reaches maturity, it is possible that teaching could be revolutionized through the introduction of this relatively new technology, especially as graphics are improved LectureVR is one example of the development of VR for education, through it is not the only application for VR technology.

Self driving cars was a hotly debated topic, with questioning about the psychological, legal, and economical implications, even if they appear to be a success so far technologically through trials of self driving trucks. One issue to consider right now is where the blame could be placed in the case of an accident (the manufacturer, the software developer, etc.), even if the chance of one would be significantly lower with self driving cars. Additionally, it was projected that humans like to be in control of their driving, whether through by feeling of empowerment or distrust of machines in general, even if accident rates from the use of self driving cars would be much lower. The idea of smart, interconnected motorcycles was also brought up, through so was the concern of possible hacking.

Other ideas of possible “next big things,” discussed included artificial intelligence, smartphones as credit cards, Tesla Solar roofs, self powering (solar possibly) cars or airplanes, and quantum computing and internet.

What do you think of these emerging technologies? Have any other ideas on what could be the next big thing? Let me know in the comments below!