The reason for the chasm

My previous post was about the different types of customers that can be seen in technological industry. In this post I will be discussing about the so called "chasm" based on the book 'Crossing the Chasm'. 

The first crack

This is the difference between the innovators and the early adopters. The reason for the difference is that early adopters cannot easily relate or understand the benefit of the product. Technology enthusiast loves the product for its architecture, but nobody else can figure out how to start using the product. One product that has fallen from this crack is "desktop video conferencing". There were many versions of the product. However customers didn't really understand the purpose of the product.

The other crack

This is the difference between the early majority and the late majority. The reason for this difference is the differing demands of the end user. By this time the market is already well developed and the product has entered the mainstream market. For people who are not frequent users of the product / system, the protocols of that system was too hard to remember or use. Thus mature markets find it harder to cover up their R&D costs because the end user cannot capture the benefit of the product. 

The chasm

The chasm exists between the early adopters and the early majority. The below table will explain the reason for the existence of the chasm;