Disruptive design: TiVo & iPad
LukeW posted a tweet today: ”revolutionary changes… they’re harder… you usually go through a period where everybody tells you you’ve completely failed” – Steve Jobs
It got me thinking about disruptive designs, and in particular the TiVo. We bought our first TiVo a little over 10 years ago. At the time, I thought it would be nice to have a VCR that would be easier to program. I liked the idea of being able to set up a program quickly and be sure that my show would actually record. I also thought the idea of being able to pause during a show (for a snack run or bathroom break) might come in handy.
See, at the time, I could only see the TiVo through what I already knew: the VCR. I could only compare its usefulness and value to problems I had already identified: for example, recording shows. What I utterly failed to understand was that TiVo would change absolutely everything about how I watched television. It was a completely disruptive design.
Yes, the ability to record programs easily was great. Yes, the ability to pause during shows was, as expected, fun. But what I didn’t expect was that from that point forward I would never again sit down in front of the TV with nothing to watch. There would always be something on TV – in fact, always something that I really wanted to watch. Wow.
My children grew up with a TiVo in the house. I never worried about finding the right shows for my son when he was 3 years old because I could just fill it up with (please don’t tell anyone) TeleTubbies and he would be ecstatic. In his world, he asked for TeleTubbies and he got them. Instantly. At age 3 he could drive the TiVo himself. That would have been pretty hard to pull off with a TV & VCR.
In hindsight it all looks so obvious. But that’s what happens with disruptive design – it’s hard for the people who use it to anticipate how it will change their lives.
So lately I’ve been thinking about having an iPad… I have a whole little list of things that will be nice. But what I’m really looking forward to is the ways that it changes { surfing, reading, listening, watching, etc. } for me that I don’t even know about.
I’m curious: Did you have a similar experience with the TiVo? Do you think the iPad will be as disruptive? How will it change the way you { surf, read, listen, watch }?
| Category: Musings | 2 comments » |
February 10th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Great points! The iPad has been getting raked over the coals because of Jobs’ comparison to netbooks. Jobs planted that seed because that’s the direction future versions of the iPad will evolve, but that’s the wrong comparison for 1.0: it’s more of a ‘Kindle on steroids’. I do see it transforming the experiences you identify, especially surfing and reading. Not sure about listening or watching (yet) — needs to support Flash for watching.
Even with this version, the fact that iWork applications are running on it shows its potential. I still make a distinction between full-blown software (applications) and apps, and my killer application would be PersonalBrain.
As more applications can run on it, I don’t see much need for the MacBook Air, which I expect will go the way of the Apple Newton. However, the MacBook Air has served a purpose — getting that thin and light a form factor makes the iPad possible. Being able to get a video camera into a Nano bodes well for the iPad 2.0 . Maybe even iPad can evolve into a better name?
March 16th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Excellent analogy. My original interest in the potential of the iPad leaned toward entertainment, but now is more towards its business applications. I almost see it as the birth of electronic paper. It is light, fast, flexible and has the power to go all day. Tie it into a central server and it becomes ideal for business meetings. Something that the laptop has been trying to do for years. All the demos seemed to gloss over the business apps. If the mainstream adopts this tech, how we work will change overnight.
I stumbled across your blog looking for discussions of how to tie an iPad into the Tivo, but your musings got me outside the box (forgive the tired cliché). Changes seem to happen so quickly, yet comparatively go by without much consideration. Thanks for the change in perspective.