Buggy whips were never anything but a niche market, being largely an affectation of the moneyed classes, & even then, rarely left their holders, so they had extremely long lives, especially if dressed with preservatives, & in many cases were passed from generation to generation.

Replacement of very old worn out whips, & supply of a few new ones was hardly a huge industry!

Unfortunately, many people who lack critical thinking skills are very fond of this analogy, as it offers a simple answer to the hard, real world, questions asked by those affected by the “change process”, as they see their industry heading down a usually
totally unresearched path. as management keeps up with the latest fad.

This reminds me of a way I live my life that I often times forget… that, in order to sell to consumers you have to be a consumer yourself.

For example, my wife and I love waiting in line even when we may know the owner of the venue we are attending, because you have to use all your senses and experience everything from the consumers perspective… otherwise lose it and your view of the world.

I don’t believe reading reviews, and even talking to others is quiet enough. I’d recommend jumping into it head first. Buy it, use it and be it.

The shift from desktop computers to tablets and smart phones in education has been ongoing for many years now. I first noted it just after the iPhone first appeared but dismissed it as a fluke. The iPad changed my thinking. I must address this market.

The difficult part for me is not so much spotting trends because I am deeply involved with everything going on, but finding the means to adapt. Small businesses have small budgets. Moving our software from computers to tablets is a huge undertaking for us. We already spent a year on phase one of this effort. The result is a more potent, faster, and slicker product on all platforms.

Rewriting our 50,000 lines of software is not an option. We’ve been seeking alternatives. Because we use the most popular computer language on the planet, they’ve been coming, but slowly. We’re now involved in phase two of our plan. I hope that a good migration path is ready when we start phase three, the actual coding and deployment for multiple, incompatible platforms.

I could go through examples of previous adaptations to change that we’ve made, but these were too technical to explain well in this forum. I’m simply pointing out that the buggy whip problem has two faces. One is recognition of the trend. The second is finding a way to adapt. Sometimes, the latter is much more difficult than the first for a variety of reasons that may be technical, cultural, and/or merely financial.