Quick Insight: There are a couple of trends that we’ve been tracking and that I believe are of note to the product development community.
- Mobile, obviously, is hot but it appears to me that it may be a disruptor not just an innovation. What does that mean? To me, a disruption is an innovation that breaks the mold. It doesn’t go through the standard innovation curve – which includes a period of hype followed by adoption, pull back, and then recovery. Mobile, specifically touchscreen-enabled phones and tablets, is showing signs of sustainable growth. This type of disruptor changes the way business is done. I sense that mobile will quickly be commoditized. Within two years, not having a mobile product will be a nonstarter and death trap.
- Ruby on Rails has followed the standard innovation curve. It survived its pullback, has recovered, and is now in a phase of continued growth. The Rails community has addressed performance and other issues that were stumbled upon during the hype and overuse phase. It is no longer the golden hammer. Ruby seems ready to sustain growth. As one of my colleagues said last week, Ruby actually looks as though it’s following Java’s innovation curve to a ‘T’.
What other trends are you seeing in the market? Do you agree with these assessments? Are you seeing the same?