Technology Adoption Cycle
The Technology Adoption Cycle classifies people into groups according to their preference for adopting new technology. Broadly, according to this model, the world consists of:
- innovators - risk-takers who embrace technological change and experiment with it as soon as its released, just to be the first on the block to have used it.
- early adopters – a little behind the innovators, this group accepts the risks of using new technology provided the new technique establishes a suitable competitive advantage.
- early majority – almost risk averse, these people want to know something works before they try it. They are open to new ideas, but won’t employ them until they see their peers doing so.
- late majority – conservative people who are prepared to give up competitive advantage for security and safety. They wait until a technology has been proved to work well, and until the technology is supported by reliable service offerings to support them during its installation, training and use.
- laggards – those people who hate change, especially technology induced, who wait until they have no choice but to switch.
