Diffusion of Innovation: The Rise to Dominance of the iPhone
https://medium.com/@abigailq/the-rise-of-the-iphone-d6f0f4d720ad
If you are reading this, there is a good chance you own an iPhone. There’s even a solid chance you are reading this on an iPhone. It is to no surprise that the iPhone is the most popular phone model in the world, considering the extremely high rate at which they are purchased and used. iPhones are so widely used that in many settings it’s abnormal not to have one; hence the ridicule for green text-bubbles. Despite there current dominance in human life and society, iPhones were not always the top choice for cellular devices. Before “smartphones” existed, manufacturers like Nokia and Motorola led the cellular phone market. These companies adapted as cellular technology improved, developing models that were early introductions of smartphones. However, in 2007 Apple released its first generation of the iPhone, labeled the iPhone 2G, and was originally priced at $499-$599. Steve Jobs emphasized the revolutionary touch screen components of the iPhone, making it a “real” smartphone as compared to the other popular cell phones at the time.
The 2007 release of the iPhone 2G represents a new technology introduced to society, which can be seen as one large social network. The widespread adoption of the iPhone starting in 2007 embodies many of the network and sociology principles in the diffusion of innovation. In the study of social networks and networks as a whole, the spreading of information and ideas, especially new information and ideas, moves in a way that can be analyzed for trends and patterns. Information diffusion can be broken down to nodes and thresholds, illustrating the ways in which adoption of innovation moves person to person. Shape and structure of the network plays a large role into the route in which the innovation travels, enabling or prohibiting the ability for a complete cascade to occur. Clusters of people/nodes that are very closely tied have a harder time being exposed to new technology, as their information access is limited due to the fact that everyone closely associates with each other and mostly only with each other. The reverse is true as well, as loosely connected clusters have more inputs of information, which then gets adopted and spread more easily. The iPhone was not fully adopted overnight, however took over the cell phone market unlike any other phone manufacturer worldwide. This high rate of adoption and spread in diverse network environments suggest that there is a low threshold for A, which is directly relevant to the speed and effectiveness of diffusion in varying cluster densities. iPhones revolutionized society, the same way Facebook changed social media and airbags changed automobiles. A lot can be said about society and the world at large, when looking beyond the surface in to the massive takeover by Apple.