Marketing - Competing On Not Bad And Well Priced
"...Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad he said that, if a product wasn't far better than what was already out there, it had no reason for being.
For Apple, which has enjoyed enormous success in recent years, build it and they will pay is business as usual. But it's not a universal business truth. On the contrary, companies like Ikea, H. & M., and the makers of the Flip video camera are flourishing not by selling products or services that are far better than anyone elses but by selling things that aren't bad and cost a lot less. These products are much better than the cheap stuff you used to buy at Woolworth, and they tend to be appealingly styled, but, unlike Apple, the companies aren' trying to build the best mousetrap out there. Instead, they're engaged in what Wired recently christened the good-enough revolution. For them, the key to success isn't excellence. It's well-priced adequacy."
Soft in the Middle by James Surowiecki (author of the "wisdom of Crowds".)
We don't really sell any products - just services. Does any of this, "good-enough revolution", apply to services? In our case I think it does for the web development and design area since we use a lot of open-source software and good-enough web design (see my delicious bookmarks for lists of web designs from leading designers). Who benefits - people that have information about open-source and knowledge of web design. In other words - an educated consumer.
Disruptive technologies, Clayton Christensen fans will recall, gain their foothold by being adopted by the low end of the market, where they are not as good as the market leader but are cheaper, more convenient, and "good enough."