> innovators (will try new tech because it's shiny)
That doesn't sound like innovation to me. It sounds more like fashion. Am I reading too strictly into definitions? (I assume that I am, since I'm not familiar with Crossing the Chasm)
That doesn't sound like innovation to me. It sounds more like fashion. Am I reading too strictly into definitions? (I assume that I am, since I'm not familiar with Crossing the Chasm)
I describe the innovator group that way because high-tech early adopters will often try a new tech just because it's an exciting new tech.
I don't think that's fashion, exactly, because those people are only 2-3% of the market, but you could look at it as fashion within that group. A good recent example is Google Glass. Some people surely bought it to be seen as cool by other tech adopters, but I know a bunch of people who bought it just to see what the hell it did, to experiment with it. Ditto for low-cost 3D printers.
I think the name "innovators" pre-dates applying the model to high-tech types, and outside of tech I think the term is more clearly appropriate, because tech folks have an especially strong fondness for novelty.