Cell Phones: Good Enough?

Clayton Christensen, in his seminal work, the Innovators Dilema, espouses a concept that certain technologies are just good enough. They might not be the best technologies, the sleekest, the fastest, or the best you can buy.

But they are priced right and good enough for people to use.

Interestingly, as a VC, I spend a heck of a lot of time on the phone talking to founders or other company employees, or Skyping with people who are not in the same town with me.

While these technologies are fairly ubiquitous - people under 30 are certainly more likely to have a cell phone and broadband access than a land line - I must say that the quality of these calls and videos is abysmal.

Compared to my office landline they might as well be tin cans connected with string - and yet that is how we roll these days.

Very clearly a case of technology being good enough.

We have traded quality for ubiquity - clarity for convenience - and for the very vast majority, that's more than good enough.