Technology Push
or
Market Pull
Public Interaction
Technology push v Market pull
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Which influences the sale of a product the
most?
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Which influences the sale of a product the
most?
• It depends…
– “the debate about whether technology pushes
products onto the market or whether
consumers demand that technology is
developed for new products has raged since
1934”
• Consider the Sony Walkman and more
recently the integrated mobile phone…
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– According to Sony, "In 1979, an empire in personal
portable entertainment was created with the
ingenious foresight of Sony Founder and Chief
Advisor, the late Masaru Ibuka, and Sony Founder
and Honorary Chairman Akio Morita. It began with the
invention of the first cassette Walkman TPS-L2 that
forever changed the way consumers listen to music."
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– Sony Pressman = Sony Walkman
– In 1978, Masaru Ibuka requested that Kozo
Ohsone, general manager of the Tape
Recorder Business Division, begin work on a
stereo version of the Pressman, the small,
monaural tape recorder that Sony had
launched in 1977
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– Sony Founder Akio Morita's Reaction to the
Modified Pressman
– "This is the product that will satisfy those young
people who want to listen to music all day. They'll
take it everywhere with them, and they won't care
about record functions. If we put a playback-only
headphone stereo like this on the market, it'll be a
hit." - Akio Morita, February 1979, Sony
Headquarters
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– Sony invented the compact and extremely
lightweight H-AIR MDR3 headphones for
their new cassette player. At that time,
headphones weighed on average between
300 to 400 grams, the H-AIR headphones
weighed just 50 grams with comparable
sound quality. The name Walkman was a
natural progression from Pressman
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– Launch of the Sony Walkman
– On June 22 1979, the Sony Walkman was
launched in Tokyo. Journalists were treated to an
unusal press conference. They were taken to
Yoyogi (a major park in Tokyo) and given a
Walkman to wear. According to Sony, "The
journalists listened to an explanation of the
Walkman in stereo, while Sony staff members
carried out various demonstrations of the
product. The tape the journalists were listening to
asked them to look at certain demonstrations,
including a young man and woman listening to a
Walkman while riding on a tandem bicycle."
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– In order to further market the Sony
Walkman, since consumers knew little
about the product. The Marketing dept
arranged for actors to walk about the
streets of Tokyo listening to a Walkman
which in turn created an interest in the
Walkman.
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Sony Walkman
– By 1995, total production of Walkman units
reached 150 million and over 300 different
Walkman models have been produced to
date.
Technology Push v Market Pull
• So where next.
– A market has been created for the portable
music player. However no-one now wears a
cassette walkman.
• Now comes the market pulling the
technology and improving the walkman
still further and evolutions such as
– CD walkman, MP3 player, integrated mobile
phone
Technology Push v Market Pull
• Was that market pull or technology push?
• Using a product of your choice illustrate
the difference between Market Pull and
Technology Push
Market pull or
technology push?
NEXT
Market Pull
Integrated Walkman Phone
Argument for market pull
• By now the need for both mobility of
communication and access to music had been
established.
• The clutter or carrying both was a problem.
• At the same time the need for large amounts of
memory to store data was also needed and
laptops were being developed with access to
memory sticks.
• The mobile phone was more and more prevalent
and becoming more and more fashionable.
Argument for market pull
• The consumer drove the need to reduce clutter.
– “Why should I carry both my mobile and an MP3
around?”
• So manufacturers merged the technologies of
memory capacity, functionality, music
reproduction and communication together
• Hence the market pulled the technologies
together and the integrated walkman phone was
born.
Argument for technology push
• The following technologies were being
developed by different brands:
– Solid state memory, music reproduction,
speakers, office functionality, touch screen,
GPS
– By creating a market for the one integrated
product a brand could become a market
leader.
– By merging brands both could be seen as
market leaders
Argument for technology push
• The following technologies were being
developed by different brands:
– Sony and Ericsson merged technologies and
entered the market.
– Apple created their own SMART phone
Technology PUSH
• Dyson Airblade
• Dyson bagless vacuum cleaner
• Trevor Bayliss “Wind Up”
– Radio
– Torch
– TV?
Dyson Airblade
• Dyson is about developing new
technology to solve everyday
problems, such as hand dryers that
are too slow and can take as long as
44 seconds to dry hands. It's
because of their motors. They can't
create enough airflow to remove
water from hands effectively.
They're also unhygienic since they
can't filter the bacteria from the air.
Dyson Airblade
• The Dyson Airblade™ hand dryer
works in just 10 seconds – scraping
water from hands like a windscreen
wiper. It’s the fastest hand dryer,
powered by the unique Dyson digital
motor. A HEPA filter purifies the air
before blowing it onto hands, so it’s
also hygienic. And it uses up to 80%
less energy than warm air hand
dryers.
•
http://www.dysonairblade.co.uk/technology/dysontech.asp
Task
• Using a designer (or design movement) of
your choice explain how they have
influenced technology or
Dyson Bagless
• James has always pulled things to pieces, interested in
how they work, asking “why does it do that?”. “Just
because it does” has never sufficed as an answer.
• Sea Truck current sales $500
• While at London's Royal College of Art, James Dyson
developed the Sea Truck – a high speed landing craft.
Then came Ballbarrow; its large red pneumatic ball
stopped it sinking into soft ground. The Trolleyball boat
launcher and amphibious Wheelboat followed.
Dyson Bagless
• A local sawmill caught James’ eye. Under cover
of dark he sketched the timber yard’s giant
cyclone. It spun sawdust out of the air, collecting
it in a chamber. Could the same principle signal
the end of clogging vacuum cleaner bags?
Five years and 5,127 prototypes later, a
machine that had no bag and no loss of suction
Dyson Bagless
• Uninterested in new
technology and wedded to
vacuum bags (worth £250
million every year), major
manufacturers turned James
and his invention away.
James eventually licensed his
design in Japan, the home of
high-tech. The Japanese loved
the pink G-Force and, in 1993,
the royalties allowed James to
manufacture a machine under
his own name, DCO1
Dyson Bagless
• An inventor pays substantial
fees to renew patents every
year. Though he brushed with
bankruptcy during the
development years, for James,
it was money well spent.
In 1999, after a lengthy court
battle, Hoover was found guilty
of infringing James’ patent.
Other manufacturers, unable
or unwilling to develop their
own vacuum cleaners, still try
to copy Dyson technology to
no avail.
Dyson Bagless
• James and his engineers
develop inventions, but
also improve existing
Dyson technology.
They’re rather fastidious.
Dyson machines now
have smaller multiple
cyclones, which create
greater centrifugal forces,
capturing more
microscopic dust.
Dust you can’t see
All change and innovate
Another problem to solve: normal upright vacuum cleaners have fixed wheels,
running on a fixed axle.
They only move in straight lines. Like a pram.
A Dyson Ball™ machine is different. It rides on a ball, pivoting on a single point,
allowing it to go in any direction.
All change and innovate
• Conventional electric motors
haven’t changed much in 100
years. Bulky and fragile. The
brushes wear down and emit
carbon dust.
The Dyson digital motor works
differently.
Controlled by microchip it
spins at 98,000 rpm – fivetimes faster than a Formula 1
car engine. Because of its
speed, the digital motor is half
the size and half the weight of
conventional motors. With no
brushes or fixed magnets, it
doesn’t emit carbon either.
The Influence
• What influence has James Dyson had on
design?
– Penetrated the market and became a new competitor
in the market place influencing competitors.
– Created a product people want (not necessarily need)
– Improved existing technologies, and continues to do
so, forcing others to keep up.
– Created a brand which has its own aesthetic style and
appeal.
– Changed the way vacuum cleaning is considered by
the public.
DYSON DC08 TELESCOPIC WRAP VACUUM CLEANER