Interesting analysis of disruptive technologies by Henry Blodget in today's Sunday Times. He argues “Disruptive technologies do not immediately replace existing technologies because they are better.”

In fact, he argues that in the beginning, they are worse. "They’re just simpler, cheaper, and more convenient. They appeal to the low end of the market (in this case, netbooks), which doesn’t need all the bells and whistles that the high-end needs. They initially gain share in the low end, and the incumbent doesn’t care about losing it because it’s low-margin share.

“But then . . . the disruptive products get better and more fully featured and they begin to migrate up to the mid-market. And the incumbent is forced to retreat to the high-margin high-end. And then, eventually, the disruptive product becomes mass market and the incumbent becomes a rickety old colossus that crashes in on itself.”

This is an interesting take when we consider what might disrupt the e-learning market. It has long been argued for example that open source LMS solutions such as Moodle are not as in rich functionally as properietary ones. However, Moodle is certainly gaining market share and is now the most used LMS in the US corporate market. We are also seeing more and more addtional features and modules being added to Moodle. It seems to us that Moodle has the potential to be another disruptive technology.