Name: Technology's long tail
Uploaded: 2007-04-27T00:11:00Z
Duration: 14 min 4 s
Description: Chris Anderson, then the editor of Wired, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous.

Chris Anderson, then the editor of Wired, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous.

Technology's long tail

Breakthrough technologies do not just reshape markets—they run a common course: from expensive novelty to essential, nearly free commodity. A product like the DVD started above $400, then surged once it dropped below that line, later displacing the VCR and becoming almost disposable. Each phase—critical price, mass adoption, displacement, and eventual ubiquity—opens new opportunities and disrupts old expectations. Timing these transitions is the real art of anticipating the future.