Blog 9: Diffusion of Innovation Theory

 The Diffusion of Innovations Theory, introduced by professor of communications studies Everett Rogers, explains how, why, and at what rate do technologies and ideas from both past and present day expand. According to this theory, there are five main factors that influence the expansion of a new idea or technology; the innovation itself, adopters, communication channels, time, and a social system. When it comes to the adopters, there are five different categories for them, being pioneers, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Each category is a stage in which a technology or idea goes through. When you buy a product, you are put into one of these categories depending on when you first bought it, or if you even purchased it to begin with. Regarding the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, I researched the Amazon Alexa to see how this technology fares with the theory’s outline.

Pioneers of Alexa

To start, the Amazon Alexa is a voice-based AI-powered digital assistant that uses speech recognition to perform the tasks or commands given by the user. Some possible commands could be; “Alexa, what’s the weather outside today?”, or “Alexa,  what’s the score of the Dallas Cowboys game?” Jeff Bezos, former Amazon CEO, sketched the idea of the Alexa Echo out on a conference room whiteboard in 2011. The pioneers of Alexa consist of all those in the development and preparation for the Amazon Alexa, which is the same group of people that are still continuously working and innovating the Alexa.

Early Adopters and Majority

People who are a part of the early adopters and early majority not only make up almost half of
consumers, but it’s where we see according to the Diffusion of Innovations Theory that the market share increases greatly. The early adopters and early majority of the Amazon Alexa were mostly techies who needed to get their hands on the next biggest piece of technology. I believe it’s more than that, as they instill all of their trust into the product, and not only that, are satisfied enough to share nothing but positive feedback. This early talk of a product turns to the early majority. The early majority aren’t the first, but they are the first to pick up on it early enough.

Late majority and Laggards

As a product's popularity and market share hits its peak, the late majority joins in. People apart from the late majority are usually skeptical of certain things, which is why they are late to products. Another reason as to why someone is a part of the late majority could simply be that they are unable to afford it as well. The late majority were mostly worrisome about the advanced abilities Alexa had, and what it really is programmed to do. Another popular question at the time was; “Does this thing hear me at all times, even when it's''off ``?” After the late majority comes in the laggards, the last people to reach a product. People who never in their lifetime adapt to a certain product or innovation fall into the laggards category as well. Laggards of the Amazon Alexa are people who still worry and are skeptical about the possible downsides the Alexa comes with.