Continuing on the topic of the Pew Study that categorizes Americans by their technology use...

I've been thinking. Should we be tailoring technology for the "lacklusters" or for the "technical elites"? Maybe you think I'm flip-flopping because of my earlier post about how we can create technology to connect Grandma to the internet. But this recent post by Seth Godin made an interesting, however unscientific observation:



Should technology be driven by the trickle-down model? Should we target technology for the Omnivores, see what catches on and then adapt what's popular for everyone else, assuming that Omnivores are the canaries in the mine and the ones who will spend money? You could probably argue that this is what's already happening. Consider how difficult it was to think of products for Grandma versus the number of laptops and other gadgets on the market. Remember the internet appliances of the 90's? Were they the equivalent of entry level-cook books?

I hate to think this is true, but perhaps that's just the cold hard economics of the market. Or perhaps the top-down approach is easier to do. I still have hope for entry-level (aka simple and innovative) technology because when they work, they really change the world. They broaden the usefulness and appeal of technology. The Apple Macintosh. The Palm Pilot. The Kodak Brownie camera.

Here's an interesting example I heard last week. I spent much of last Friday at the Nokia Research Center just down the street here in Palo Alto. By the way, it's a very cool workspace; the walls are all painted in the Nokia greens colors and its furnished with a stylish scandinavian touch -- lots of simple bare wood and frosted glass. Our friend at Nokia, Mirjana, had invited April, Kenton, and I to come give our talk on our mobile video user study. Also visiting Nokia was Gary Marsden of the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who won the Social Impact Award at CHI this year. His talk was full of fascinating observations from his tour around Africa, specifically on the topic of how (mobile) technology is used. One of his anecdotes told the story of how Motorola had tried to create a mobile phone to market in Africa so they essentially created and marketed a phone for poor people. The problem was the people in the various African nations are much like you and me. Image matters. They aspire to have the coolest, most high-tech gadget possible, despite their modest means. No one wanted the phone that was made for poor people.

You don't want people to mistake simple and accessible for cheap and cheesy.

Trickle-down or bottom-up innovation? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.