Driven by innovation or customer experience?

In a recent article it was suggested that the order in which things are invented has an impact on their use and acceptance. Developments in technology are not necessarily a sequential expansion of capability or benefits. An early popular use of the telegraph was the telegram. Messages had to be written on a form, using an economy of words, for an operator to key in and send and be printed out for a telegram boy to deliver. Messages were of economic necessity brief but had the advantage of speed over post. Voice communication came later with the telephone and offered instant two-way communication, but still in the early days a caution of keeping calls brief due to cost. It was a long time before first, long distance and later international calls became common place. Then came wireless telephony and mobile phones. You could now talk from anywhere without the restrictions of fixed line systems. Then oddly texting became arguably the most popular use of mobile telephony. Back to the telegram – an economy of words, indeed a language that evolved for the purpose, not dissimilar to the abbreviated business language once used for telex. But what if texting had been the only method of communicating on mobiles – would voice have been seen as a big step forward? In new product development writing a specification for a new product often calls for all the features of the one that is being replaced, plus a whole host more to match every competitor all at a lower cost. If invited to contribute to the product development process sales people will naturally want every feature they have ever been asked for, simply to remove sales objections. The result is what in effect are redundant features never or rarely used because they are not actually needed or too difficult to understand or operate. Did product developers expect the success of SMS, or was it a user driven uptake based on simplicity? Perhaps if texting had come first and voice later it would have gone the way of the telegram by now. In marketing product development requires not only an ability to profitably harness evolving technologies and an understanding of actual and perceived user needs but also inspiration.