2. Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers
University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and speaks
about disruptive innovation and technological change.
3. The shift from film-based photography to
digital imaging has put many former
camera giants in deep trouble…
4. The explosion
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Number of film and digital cameras
sold in the United States
44. But the concept of
having a LCD screen and
this design turned out to
be very attractive.
45. Now the big Japanese
dragons like Canon,
Nikon and Olympus
invested a lot in
developing this concept.
46. The Japanese firms worked
jointly in an industry
association to solve critical
technical issues.
47. Moreover, they made sure
that the structure was
modular, so that each
individual component could
be improved separately.
48. Instead of fighting battles about standards,
each company could instead focus on the
product and reducing R&D costs. This created
a healthy competition - each one
differentiated within the defined settings.
49. The modular, standardized structure also
implied that consumer electronics
companies could work
on each component.