Diffusion of Innovations - Apple's iPod

As consumers there might be products that we adopt early on and when it becomes popular you say, "Hey I've been using that for years!" Or perhaps there are those products that we hold off on buying, whether its because we feel we don't need it or just don't want to hop on the bandwagon. This concept of buying into products or ideas stems from Rogers's Diffusion of Innovations (or ideas) can be seen more clearly in Roger's Diffusion of Innovations Model. 

2001 Apple iPod

The innovation and evolution of music has been tracked throughout the beginning of time. There is archeological evidence that humans having been making music and musical instruments for around 40,000 years. Ancient Greek vases portrayed people playing flute type instruments and singing. In the Middle Ages, aristocratic courts and churches used music and evolved later into the Classical Period. The Classical Period lasted from 1732 to 1827 and composers such as Beethoven and Mozart helped develop the sonata and concerto. 

Fast forward to 2001 when the technology company, Apple introduced their iPod. The iPod combined the past innovations of the record, cassette tape, and radio all into one small gadget that could fit into your pocket. The iPod caught on and spread to consumers as people realized that this gadget was more convenient and reliable to their old cassette tapes and radios. You were now able to plug your headphones into a smaller device and didn't have to carry around your clunky cassette player. The sound quality was also better on the iPod and ran less risk of the tracks being scratched and worn down. However, people may have adopted this technology later than others on this technology was extremely new, and they didn't feel like they had to join in as their radios, records, and cassette players still worked just fine. 

 

Diffusion of Ideas

It's now 2025 and we are seeing the downsides of what used to be brand new technology. We now have small pocket-sized computers that not only replace the old iPod but now replace our telephones and cameras. While this technology has improved our society in many ways, the technology has evolved from being helpful to hurtful as governments and large social media corporations are stealing our data. The government and large companies are now able to gain private information on citizen's day to day lives through phones and voice command technologies. 

Looking back at the revolution from early music to a small gadget that combined all of the past music innovations, to current cell phones in our hands, the positives of this technology outweigh the negatives. However, it's hard to say if in the future, will the negatives begin to outweigh the positives?