Over time, 8-inch drive manufacturers improved capacity and reduced costs so much that the 8-inch drives eventually had a lower cost-per-megabyte than the 14-inch drives. Additionally, the 8-inch drives began invading the 14-inch drives\u2019 market<\/strong>: The 8-inch drives\u2019 capacity had increased enough to suit low-end mainframe computers, eventually pushing 14-inch drives out of the low-end mainframe market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among 14-inch drive manufacturers, two-thirds never entered the 8-inch drive market\u2014and those that did were two years behind the 8-inch startups. Although the established firms that entered the 8-inch market had products that performed just as well, they couldn\u2019t compete with the entrant firms.<\/strong> Eventually, every 14-inch drive manufacturer failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 14-inch drive manufacturers hesitated or failed to enter the 8-inch market because their mainframe computer customers didn\u2019t want smaller drives. Mainframe computer makers wanted more capacity at a lower cost-per-megabyte, and 8-inch drives couldn\u2019t offer that\u2014at first. Ultimately, listening to their customers led to the 14-inch firms\u2019 demise.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n This pattern repeated multiple times in the evolution of the ever-shrinking disk drives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the entrant Seagate Technology created the 5.25-inch drive in 1980, it had a sixth of the megabyte capacity of 8-inch drives and five times the access time (the higher the access time, the slower the computing speed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minicomputer manufacturers weren\u2019t interested in the innovation, so Seagate had to find another market.<\/strong> The company turned to the emerging market of personal desktop computers, where the drive\u2019s inferior capacity was less important than its smaller size and lower total price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As in the transition from 14- to 8-inch drives, the established 8-inch firms that eventually produced 5.25-inch drives were about two years behind entrant firms. And half of 8-inch makers never entered the 5.25-inch market and eventually failed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the capacity of the drives increased, they eventually became sufficient for minicomputer and mainframe manufacturers. Again, the disruptive innovation began in an emerging market and eventually invaded the established market.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 3.5-inch drive was created by a company called Rodime in 1984, but the technology took off when the firm Conner Peripherals brought it to market in 1987. Similar to previous evolutions, this drive was physically smaller and offered less capacity than existing products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Conner found a market in new portable and laptop computers, which valued the drive\u2019s smaller size, lighter weight, and decreased power needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Seagate\u2014the innovator of the 5.25-inch disk drive, and now an established firm\u2014could have beat Conner to the market, but the company fell into the trap of listening to its customers. In 1985, Seagate\u2019s engineers introduced a 3.5-inch drive prototype to customers, but the desktop computer makers weren\u2019t interested. Seagate\u2019s executives killed the 3.5-inch project because they doubted that the smaller drives would bring in enough revenue to make it worth the investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, after Conner began selling 3.5-inch drives, Seagate revived the project\u2014but instead of targeting the emerging market of laptop manufacturers, Seagate sold the smaller drives to desktop computer makers. Although Seagate had hesitated to invest in the disruptive technology for fear of cannibalizing its existing sales, that\u2019s exactly what happened when the company finally entered the market <\/strong>because it sold the drives to its existing customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Seagate\u2019s mistake is a common misstep among companies facing disruptive technologies. To avoid this, established companies should adopt disruptive innovations soon after the technologies emerge, and the companies should target the disruptive products\u2019 emerging markets, instead of trying to tailor them to existing markets. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1989, an entrant firm called Prairietek introduced a 2.5-inch drive and dominated the market. But by the end of 1990, Conner Peripherals produced its own version of the drive and took 95 percent of the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In this case, the entrant Prairietek didn\u2019t have the advantage over the established Conner Peripherals because the 2.5-inch drive was a sustaining\u2014not a disruptive\u2014technology. <\/strong>The smaller drive appealed to the same laptop makers that used 3.5-inch drives, so the innovation merely represented a technological improvement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Throughout the decades of improving disk technology, each round of the case studies in innovation showed incumbents allowed themselves to be led astray by their customers\u2019 input. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What are some case studies in innovation? How do different case studies in innovation teach important lessons for businesses? Case studies in innovation can come from any industry. One of the most robust case studies in innovation is the disk drive industry, which saw several disruptive innovations over the years. Read on for one of the interesting case studies in innovation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,79,104],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-16724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entrepreneurship","category-marketing","tag-the-innovators-dilemma","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/NW3RnPEb0rr1Md2XKVM8M3Yjg1S9S2ZY7BZC3EmAKgDWeF7gvE8Dw081_kt12XiE4485dpM8jUcZhwZXulYgkLN3rS-N7oVIeTzR8UaPKlnIyhHNno75kBzm8V4bIIWatd25LIzE\")
The 5.25-Inch Drive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The 3.5-Inch Drive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2.5-Inch Drive<\/strong>: The Final of These Disk Drive Case Studies in Innovation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n