It’s been ten years since Clayton Christensen published his seminal business book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. I had the good fortune to read it three years ago.
Newsweek sat down with Christensen this week to answer some lingering questions, discuss how the word “disruptive” has been used and abused over the years, and probe his predictions on whether Apple iPhone would disrupt the wireless market.
Apple is leaping ahead on the sustaining curve [by building a better phone]. But the prediction of the theory would be that Apple won’t succeed with the iPhone. They’ve launched an innovation that the existing players in the industry are heavily motivated to beat: It’s not [truly] disruptive.