Has Being An Early Adopter Gone Mainstream?

from the not-really-early-anymore,-is-it? dept

Mon, Oct 17th 2005 5:01am — Mike Masnick

Being an early adopter implies that you're adopting new technologies before everyone else. However, there's almost always someone behind you. Still, it seems a little weird for USA Today to claim that nearly 30% of American households are now considered "early adopters." Once you hit 30% on something, it certainly sounds like it's gone pretty mainstream. Perhaps they need to rethink what qualifies as early adoption at this point. Things like VoIP, mobile phones and WiFi no longer seem quite so cutting edge.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

The Stalwart, 17 Oct 2005 @ 5:37am

Early Adopers
You should check out this article about slowing broadband penetration. It suggests that broadband growth is slowing because "most of the early adopters" have already signed up. It seems to me that anyone who doesn't use broadband has forfeited their early adopter status a long time ago.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bob3000, 17 Oct 2005 @ 5:47am

The source
It's USA Today. I wouldn't put much faith in their ananlysis (although their fort� is to digest the news and show colorful pictures).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Joe, 17 Oct 2005 @ 6:15am

WiFi still early adoption?
I agree,

Everyone and their mothers have WiFi now. Early adoption is liquid cooling your PC, SLi/Crossfire graphics, people who buy cell phones in their first week of introduction, hydrogen powered cars (not Hybrids anymore) etc.

Funny thing is, who the heck is USA today? The don't know the first thing about early adoption. Maybe they need to hire someone from tech-dirt or Engadget to clue them in on REAL early adoption.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2005 @ 7:59am
  
  Re: WiFi still early adoption?
  Seems that in many situations people do not really think of themselves as "early adopters" in the way that an early adopter is up against a risk that the technology will not work or perform well. Much of the "adopted" technology cited is really just some kind of extended version of an existing technology. People have been using cordless phones for years, is it that much of a stretch to see the same people using wireless ethernet? People have been used to the phone company providing (sortof) reliable services to them. I don't see how it can be looked at as a "risky" early adoption. The connection is either going to work, or it isn't going to work..
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]