Apple iPad will ignite the Ebook readers market

"Yankee Group forecasts that the already hot United States ebook reader market is about to catch fire, sparking from $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2013.

What’s the key finding of the research and why?
Yankee Group forecasts sales of eReader devices to rise from 6 million units in 2010 to a little over 19 million units sold in 2013.

Revenue from the sale of these devices will similarly catch fire, sparking from $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010 to $2.5 billion by 2013.

Additionally, by 2013 the U.S. ebook reader sales will reach 19.2 million, a CAGR of 34 percent, with 6 million ebook readers sold in 2010 alone.

The U.S. installed base of ebook readers will hit over 36 million, up from an installed base of 9 million by 2011.

Half of all consumers who indicate interest in buying an ebook reader will have bought one already, so device makers should act quickly.

"Our forecast is built around a model that factors in the effects of price elasticity, network effects and adoption risk and is loosely based on product diffusion models developed by Everett Rogers and Frank Bass." - Dmitriy Molchanov, an analyst at Yankee Group, regarding the research firm’s new study, “Yankee Group’s US EBook Reader Forecast: Kindling a Fire”

Apple (AAPL) is set to launch the iPad on April 3, 2010... at unbelievable pricing:

"With iPad, you get all our latest innovations. And all our most advanced technologies. In one of the most revolutionary products we’ve ever created. All at a price that’s well within reach."

iPad Type 16GB 32GB 64GB

Wi-Fi $499 $599 $699

Wi-Fi + 3G $629 $729 $829

Pre-orders brisk for Apple's new iPad

Neither recession nor gadget overload shall slow the mania surrounding the introduction of Apple's iPad mobile computer.

On Friday, the first day that buyers could pre-order the device (it arrives in stores next month), Apple racked up an estimated 91,000 sales in just the first six hours of availability, putting temporarily to rest the Internet's persistent "iPad fail" meme. Analysts predict the first-year sales could reach 5 million.

Engadget.com asked its tech-savvy readers whether they planned to buy an iPad, which starts at $499. The result: Nearly 19 percent of 60,000 respondents said yes; 65 percent were negative; and 16 percent clicked "What's an iPad?"

New Survey Shows Huge Wave of Apple iPad Demand Striking Amazon

A ChangeWave survey of 3,171 consumers – conducted in the aftermath of that Apple announcement (Feb 1-10) – shows a huge wave of pre-launch demand for the iPad and offers key evidence that the Apple tablet will have a major impact on the e-Reader, laptop and home entertainment markets.

Moreover, the survey shows Amazon (AMZN) and its e-Reader competitors are poised to take a big hit early on from the iPad's entry into their market.

The survey shows the Apple iPad is now poised to capture an astonishing 40% of the e-Reader market going forward in the first 90 days after its launch.

Bottomline:

According to Yankee Group, there will be at least 6 million eBook readers sold in 2010 (this survey was done before the Apple iPad announcement & launch). If Apple takes 40% of the market share, Apple will sell at least 2.4 million iPads in 2010 - new business worth at least $1.2 billion in the first year of launch - WOW! However, this is assuming the eBook reader market grows according to the baseline forecasts by Yankee. In all likelihood, the eBook readers market will grow much faster, rather ignite exponentially, with the introduction of iPad. Apple will create a new category of devices that combine eBook readers, multi-media players, web browsers, music players & more. Apple is poised to sell at least 4 million iPads in 2010, thereby creating yet another successful, disruptive aka killer innovation! Only Apple knows best how to create new businesses that grow from 0 to $1 billion plus in less than one year... this is simply AMAZING!

What does this mean for Amazon & Kindle? Would ipad relegate Kindle to second place, and deliver a knock-out punch? If history is a guide (and considering what Apple did with iPod and then with iPhone), Amazon has got to be worried... What will be Amazon's answer to iPad?

Apple's Innovation Strategy

How does Apple, the #1 innovative company in the world, innovate and create game-changing innovations such as the iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad and more? What is Apple's secret recipe for innovation success? What is Apple's innovation process?

Download Apple's Innovation Strategy, and learn how Apple became the #1 innovator through:
• Creativity and Innovation
• Innovation in Products
• Innovation in Business Model
• Innovation in Customer Experience
• Innovation and Leadership
• Steve Jobs

Apple's Innovation Strategy & Process - Download Now

Creativity And Innovation Driving Business announces the 2008 Innovation and Innovator of the year

Sanjay Dalal, Creativity And Innovation Driving Business announces the 2008 Innovation and Innovator of the year

The 2008 Innovation of the year: http://www.barackobama.com/, My.BarackObama.com
The 2008 Innovator of the year: President-elect Barack Obama and his campaign team

In November 2006, I read Senator Barack Obama's book "Audacity of Hope", and also read
about his experiences working in the Senate. At that time, I believed that he is a leader who will
make a run for the presidency based on the bold opportunities and innovations he wanted to introduce. Senator Obama announced his candidacy for U.S. presidency in early 2007.

Before Senator Obama gave his election speech on the night of November 4, and after Senator John McCain's concession speech, he sent out a brief note via email to every registered supporter:

Senator Barack Obama and his team created these key innovations along the four innovation pillars for this historical campaign that won him the U.S. presidency:

Product - www.BarackObama.com, My.BarackObama.com

Senator Obama's website www.BarackObama.com catered to all citizens of the United States - all states, all nationalities, all age groups, all religions, all
business types, all parties, all ethnicities e.g. People of Faith, Latinos, Rural Americans, Women, Kids, Students, Veterans, Military, Seniors, Sportsmen, Environmentalists, Disabled, Republicans and more.
The website clearly stated Senator Obama's stand, challenges, and opportunities on key issues such as Economy, Civil Rights, Defense, Iraq, Homeland Security, Education, Energy, Healthcare and more - total of 26 different issues wherein Senator Obama communicated on regularly. The website also provided adequate learning about Senator Obama's background, his wife Michelle Obama, Senator Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, and section devoted to In the News, latest Press Releases and Speeches of Senator Obama.
After a person donated to President Obama's campaign or signed up at BarackObama.com, the service automatically created a My.BarackObama.com page wherein the person can personalize his/her interests, create a profile, and participate in fundraising goals; find and attend local events, search for groups and group activities, and find and meet local people using My Neighborhood; create and find groups all over the nation and by categories, and connect with group members using My Groups; communicate with friends, find friends with like-minded interests, and invite new friends using My Friends; search for events, create and manage events using Events; write emails and messages to your groups and friends using the built-in messaging system, create, associate and publish blogs using the Blog tool; contact undecided voters and participate in callout campaigns using Contact voters; leverage other resources and tools to proactively collaborate in Senatar Obama's campaign. In short, the latest Web 2.0 and social networking tools and technologies were used wherein the person can interact at My.BarackObama.com and also use the latest social networking services such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more.
www.BarackObama.com and My.BarackObama.com acted as the central communication place for all of Senator Obama's communications to the voters all over the U.S., and citizens all over the world. The combination of relevant and timely information e.g. response to smears, personalization through My.BarackOabama.com, participation through many of the groups, networks and voter callouts, and social networking through events, blogs and the latest web products and services made this a top innovation of Senator Obama's campaign.

Customer Experience - Focus on "You", i.e. "We the people"

It is important to note that in late 2006, Time voted the person of the year as "You", i.e. "We the people". Senator Obama and his team understood this national trend very well in light of the developing Internet social networking technologies and behavior, and capitalized on this. The entire campaign was focused on "You". From the website that carried this theme of "You" everywhere, to Senator Obama's writings and speeches that addressed "You", "Us" and "We the people", and also the personalized communications that were emailed to every member who signed up every few days asking proactively "You" to donate, participate, and recruit voters. This focus on "You" reverberated with the central theme of Hope and Change. The results were fascinating and historic: About 4 million people registered through www.BarackObama.com, donated more than $700 million dollars to the campaign, more than the combined fundraising for the 2004 election by President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and helped recruit countless of new unregistered supporters and voters. In particular, the Obama campaign won over support from the young voters, students, minorities, first-time voters and Latinos. The total contributions for his campaign, national convention, transition and upcoming inauguration are nearing $1 billion dollars.

Processes - Nearly flawless campaign

Senator Obama had to run the campaign of his life to first overcome Senator Clinton's insurmountable lead, second win over Senator Clinton and her supporters, and third to win against Senator McCain. Each stage of the campaign tested him and his team. His campaign will go down in the history of U.S. Presidential races as probably the best run campaign of all times. In order to make this happen, Senator Obama embarked on the central theme of Change and Hope. His website captured this message prominently at the top:
"I'M ASKING YOU TO BELIEVE. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours."
Voters were ready for Change owing to current President Bush's eight year term; Voters confidence, hopes and aspirations were declining rapidly with the decline of the economy. And Senator Obama captured this sentiment with the central theme of Hope and asking voters to believe in him. Senator Obama assembled the brightest people to help him advise and run this campaign, both online and in the media, from the very first day. These people included political advisers, economists, technologists, internet gurus, entrepreneurs, businessmen and more. And he stayed with this exceptional team with few changes until the very end. Key processes and leadership provided Senator Obama the vision and ability towards winning at key junctures along the campaign: Canavassing and getting the votes of super Delegates, getting the Kennedys proactive support and approval, recruiting Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, winning over Senator Clinton and President Clinton and their supporters, and obtaining the support of key Republicans including General Colin Powell. The icing on the cake: Senator Obama bought half-hour of prime-time network television to make a final argument to ask the people of the United States to vote for him using the money that his voters overwhelmingly donated.

Business Model - Donations from "We the people"

Inspiring "We the people" i.e. "You" to donate generously and frequently. This was the hallmark of Senator Obama's campaign. Senator Obama made a key observation: If he was going to win the White House, the long road had to be through the majority of the people helping him get there. And in order to achieve that, he had to have a huge campaign budget i.e. an abundant supply of money. Senator Obama understood technology, growth of online non-profit organizations, and the Internet e-Commerce trends wherein people would donate online for a good cause. He made three key decisions towards creating the largest campaign contribution in the history of U.S. presidency: 1. No donations from lobbyists and interests. This clearly broke the political tradition, and importantly freed him from strict spending limits imposed by the government. Also, this would make more individuals to donate more money because of the resulting image created that "I am like you". 2. Inspire "You" i.e. "We the people" to join his movement for Change and Hope by using the Internet and traditional media, and register "You" online through his website. 3. Ask "We the people" to donate frequently to his campaign any amount of money by interspersing messages of Change and Hope and asking to donate simultaneously. The campaign frequently sent messages asking your friends to donate by simply entering their emails, recruiting equal donations from registered members by pledging simultaneous contributions, creating fundraising goals and asking everyone you know for help and even more creative ways to raise money for the campaign by offering campaign stickers, campaign posters and banners, campaign shirts, campaign mugs and all types of memorabilia, and invitations to join Senator Obama for lunch, dinner or key events to make "We the people" spend more money on the campaign. Big donors contributing more than $1,000 only totaled 47% of all donors. The business model of only asking the people to donate, not taking any money from lobbyists and matching contributions from government, and inspiring everyone to donate frequently through clever messages worked brillantly and helped Senator Obama create that never-empty pot of gold to spend on his campaign.

My personal story

I was inspired by Senator Obama's book "Audacity of Hope" and his campaign promise of Change and Hope. I became a U.S. citizen in 2008 to Vote, registered as a Democrat and registered to Vote, and voted for Senator Barack Obama in the general elections. I wrote about his book and experiences on this blog in November 2006 - Senator Barack Obama, Bold Innovations and Opportunities. Here is the starting paragraph from this article:
"If we act boldly, then our economy will be less vulnerable to economic disruption, our trade balance will improve, the pace of U.S. technological innovation will accelerate, and the American worker will be in a stronger position to adapt to the global economy," states Barack Obama, the Democratic U.S. Senator of Illinois, in his new book "The Audacity of Hope". Senator Obama lays out a vision for reclaiming the American Dream aided by a government built on our best traditions, representing our everyday lives, uniting our common hopes and dreams, and creating an unbreakable bond.

In summary, President-Elect Barack Obama and his campaign team are the Innovators of the year, and www.BarackObama.com and My.BarackObama.com are the Innovations of the year 2008.

About Sanjay Dalal
Sanjay Dalal is an innovator and entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in Silicon Valley and High Tech companies. Dalal is the founder of India Business Network. Dalal is the author of theFaculty eBook and Definitive Guide on Innovation, and has published over 200 articles in the last year and a half on the real-time state of innovation in business at his blog Creativity and Innovation Driving Business. Dalal introduced the Innovation Index in December 2006. Dalal was the president and managing director of the innovative investment company, Innovation Index Group, that systematically invested into the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Dalal has launched innovative products to market and grown businesses to the tune of $70 million plus a year. Dalal holds executive certification on Leading Management Teams from Cornell University, and is an engineering scholar graduate in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. Dalal attended Arizona State University for graduate education in Computer Science. Dalal secured the first position in the 50th William Lowell Putnam Math Competition. Dalal, a philanthropist, volunteered as a basketball coach for Irvine NJB - 7th graders, as an art master for 2nd graders, and is currently the secretary in the School Site Council. Dalal is an appointed member of the Dean's Leadership Circle of The Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine.

About Creativity And Innovation Driving Business
The mission of Creativity and Innovation Driving Business is to provide no-nonsense insights, strategy and solutions with proven processes that drive Creativity and Innovation at your business, create real market growth and success for your products and services, and achieve market leadership. We have considerable experience and expertise in working with small, growing and established companies, various departments and distributed teams.

Creativity And Innovation Driving Business is the leading Business Innovation Strategy, Consulting and Services organization.

We offer our industry leading Innovation eBook on Creativity And Innovation in Business that contains over 55 best practices, case studies and insights on the current state of Innovation in Business at Top Innovators.

We launched the Innovation Bootcamp to help would-be innovators and entrepreneurs jumpstart innovations at their business. By leveraging online web conferencing technology, we are able to share our insights and best practices to business professionals wherever they are in real-time. Signup for bootcamps today.

References:
http://www.barackobama.com/
Barack Obama: The Audacity of Hope. Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream
Chicago Tribune

Originally published: December 31, 2008, Re-published August 10, 2009

Failures and Stumbles driving Innovation

"Failure is our most important product." R W Johnson, Jr., Former CEO, Johnson & Johnson, 1954

"Our company has, indeed, stumbled onto some of its new products. But never forget that you can only stumble if you're moving." Richard P. Carlton, Former CEO, 3M Corporation, 1950

Great wisdom shared by two great business leaders.

"Purposeful Accidents"

Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras, authors of the bestseller "Built to Last", discuss the role of Creativity and Innovation that drives some of the successful habits of Visionary companies. They observe that "some of their (visionary companies) best moves were not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and--quite literally--accident." But they were no ordinary accidents. Rather "purposeful accidents" according to the authors.

Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

Opportunistic or Planned Innovations

The authors give several examples of visionary companies including Johnson & Johnson's accidental move into Consumer Products with discovery of "Johnson's Toilet and Baby Powder" and "Band-Aid", Marriot's opportunistic step into Airport Services from providing meals in the airports to inside the airplanes, American Express's unintended evolution into Financial and Travel Services with the introduction of "American Express Travelers Cheque" and then Tourism and Travel, HP's unplanned move into computer business (when it designed its first small computer simply to add power to its line of instruments products) and more. These innovations were neither aberrations, nor they represented random luck--the authors discovered there was more to these innovations than what appeared on the surface--something bigger at work.

Darwin and the Evolutionary Progress

The authors label this type of progress by visionary companies as "evolutionary progress". Because evolutionary progress is unplanned progress, beginning with "small incremental steps or mutations, often in the form of quickly seizing unexpected opportunities that eventually grow into major--and often unanticipated--strategic shifts." Authors believe this is comparable to Darwin's theory of Evolution--species evolving by a process of undirected variation and natural selection--the survival of the fittest. Of course the difference with visionary companies being that there is a plan in place that stimulates these experiments and variations, and ultimately creates the meaningful inventions.

Johnson and Johnson - Failures to Innovations

Johnson & Johnson, one of the visionary companies in the book, has never in its 107-year history, posted a loss. It has had many failed ventures such as a foray into Kola stimulants, colored casts for children, heart valves, kidney dialysis, and ibuprofen pain relievers - the list is quite big. The failures result at J & J from the fact that the company emphasizes placing bets on many potential opportunities--most opportunities possibly fail, but the ones that do succeed, they succeed big. The bets, or the experimentation, are an essential price to pay for successful Innovation and Long-term growth. At General Electric, Jack Welch the then CEO, called this "planful opportunism"--directing a business by setting only a few clear, overarching goals and letting the people seize any opportunities they saw to further these goals.

3M - Accidents to Innovation Machine

What about 3M, quite possibly the most innovative company of our times that even CEOs of other visionary companies admire? 3M is best known for its household brands such as Post-It note, Masking tape, Scotch tape, and many more. 3M initially failed in its mining business, and eventually stumbled onto most of the successful innovations that we know 3M for, including Post-It, Masking and Scotch tape. According to the authors, "Although the invention of the Post-it note might have been somewhat accidental, the creation of the 3M environment that allowed it was anything but an accident." 3M institutionalized such mechanisms to drive Innovation as the "15 percent rule" - technical people spend up to 15 percent of their time on projects of their own choosing or initiative, "25 percent rule" - each division should produce 25 percent of annual sales from new products and services introduced in the previous five years, "Golden Step" award - given to those creating successful new business ventures originated within 3M. More mechanisms were created to stimulate internal entrepreneurship, test new ideas, create unplanned experimentation, share new ideas, develop new innovation, cross-fertilize technology, ideas and innovation, stimulate innovation via customer problems, speed product development and market introduction cycles, provide profit sharing, and promote "a small company within a big company feel" by creating small autonomous business units and product divisions - in early 1990 3M had over sixty thousand products and over forty separate product divisions.

Norton - Lessons Learned

The authors argue that whereas 3M created the mechanisms and management practices to encourage individual initiatives and experimentation, Norton was the exact opposite. 3M took the approach of "try a lot of stuff and keep what works", whereas Norton was centralized, bureaucratic and stagnant. Not only that, the authors discovered that Norton had explicit policies discouraging entrepreneurship; there were no incentives for creativity and towards looking outside for new opportunities beyond the traditional products and businesses. Norton emphasized too much planning from the top down, and made it a way of life. Norton eventually tried to innovate and expand with acquisitions, but it was too little, too late. Norton, a company that at one time was ten times the size of 3M, ceased to exist (was acquired on its way down in the nineties).

Five takeaways stimulating Innovation

The authors summarize their findings from 3M and provide five takeaways to drive Innovation at any business:

1. "Give it a try--and quick!" - Essentially echoing on having a process to try out a lot of stuff, and keeping what really works. The key here is to do something. Keep on trying something new.

2. "Accept that mistakes will be made." - Learn from the mistakes quickly, and move on. Failures are part and parcel of what creates new innovation. Don't repeat the same mistakes.

3. "Take small steps." - Experiment, but on a small scale. When something looks promising, go all out and seize the opportunity. This way one can do plenty of inexpensive experiments that create a funnel of would-be innovations.

4. "Give people the room they need." - Without entrepreneurship, there is no experiment. Without experiment there is no success or failure. People need some time and room to experiment.

5. "Mechanisms - build that ticking clock!" - How do you harness creativity and build innovation? It cannot happen simply by chance. Companies need to create practices and tangible mechanisms to experiment, try out new ideas and innovate.

Selected references:
Leading eBook on Creativity and Innovation in Business
Creativity and Innovation Best Practices
Creativity and Innovation Case Studies
The Innovation Index
Top 50 innovative companies in the world

If you enjoyed reading this Creativity and Innovation best practice, I recommend the complete list of Creativity Innovation Best Practices.

Acknowledgements:

Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras - Built to Last - Successful Habits of Visionary Companies