Technology products and individual change

Ran across this book while perusing Amazon: "The Change Function", by Pip Coburn (former Global Technology Strategist for UBS, former columnist for Red Herring magazine). He says that the leading cause of failure in technology product introduction is that tech companies believe in "build it and they will come".

The author proposes that a better approach is the Total Perceived Pain of Adoption (including cost, level of change from established habit, etc.) must be significantly less than the level of pain caused by the Crisis (the problem the product is supposed to solve). He quotes Ted Leavitt, from the Harvard Business School, who said "People don't buy a quarter-inch drill. They buy a quarter-inch hole. You've got to study the hole, not the drill. The drill is just a solution for it."

Here's a link
for an interview with the author:

I thought the discussion of flat panel TV adoption (and HD TV) at Best Buy was interesting. They also discuss the effect of social networking and peer pressure in creating the Crisis as opposed to just functionality needs (my friends all have quarter-inch holes in their walls...).

Haven't read the book yet, but thought it seemed like one of those things that, once you think about it, you say "well, of course that's how it works", but apparently many tech companies don't 'get it'.

carl