The aim of this article is to highlight how technological innovation in the personal computer industry is modifying both market structure and relationships between manufacturers and customers. To measure technological change a model based on the technical approach has been used. This model considers the product as a set of techno-economic characteristics. About 650 models on the personal computer market between 1988 and 1994 were considered. Two main results emerge from this article: technical innovation has reduced the distance between the conservative user and the innovative user insofar as the former can nowadays purchase, at little extra cost, high performance personal computers; whereas in the past, the personal computer was considered a machine for processing information and working on texts, today it has become an indispensable tool for a variety of multimedia services, and consequently, technological innovation has pushed firms out of the personal computer product-selling phase into a service-offering phase.
Technological Evolution of Personal Computers and Market Implications / Esposito, Emilio; Mastroianni, M.. - In: TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL CHANGE. - ISSN 0040-1625. - 59:3(1998), pp. 235-254. [10.1016/S0040-1625(98)00031-6]
Technological Evolution of Personal Computers and Market Implications
ESPOSITO, EMILIO;
1998
Abstract
The aim of this article is to highlight how technological innovation in the personal computer industry is modifying both market structure and relationships between manufacturers and customers. To measure technological change a model based on the technical approach has been used. This model considers the product as a set of techno-economic characteristics. About 650 models on the personal computer market between 1988 and 1994 were considered. Two main results emerge from this article: technical innovation has reduced the distance between the conservative user and the innovative user insofar as the former can nowadays purchase, at little extra cost, high performance personal computers; whereas in the past, the personal computer was considered a machine for processing information and working on texts, today it has become an indispensable tool for a variety of multimedia services, and consequently, technological innovation has pushed firms out of the personal computer product-selling phase into a service-offering phase.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
