By Eric Townsend
Maybe you know me? I am Roomba’s corporate cousin. We were both created by iRobot, the company best known for selling more than 9 million of the autonomous vacuum cleaners called Roomba.
But the Ava 500 is “a bot designed to navigate corporate offices autonomously and facilitate videoconference calls between workers and their remote colleagues” or, as Time Magazine refers to Ava, “your new robot overlord.”
All joking aside, the robot makes good use of changing technology, taking advantage of Cisco’s Telepresence conferencing system, wireless broadband, and GPS and other technologies that help it to navigate through an office.
This is just another example of business tactics and strategy shifting to take advantage of new technology.
Now, maybe you don’t quite see the value in a robot overlord, but consider that lots of robotic technology wasn’t initially valued. For instance, now we have applied robotics in all sorts of manufacturing plants and a few iRobots even went into the Fukushima nuclear plant when radiation levels were unsafe for humans. And, robotic automation is even coming out of the factories — not just to offices like the Ava 500, but also in the field to automate the installation of large solar arrays.
Here’s an infographic that shows the history of tech adoption. What’s interesting about this data to me is that you can see that people adopted cell phones, PCs, and VCRs faster than they adopted stoves, refrigerators, and automatic washing machines.
There’s no doubt about it, technology makes our lives easier – even when we’re a little nervous to try it out. That’s been happening with Windows 8. Customers just aren’t sure about the touch interface – even after they try it on an Ultrabook convertible that can function as both a laptop and a tablet. So the curve starts out slowly, but once people get their hands on it a couple of times and see how the interface marries the best of their phones and tablets with the power and functionality of a PC, they’re hooked. And after Windows XP goes away in April, 2014 (that’s in 8 months, people), you’ll see more people moved on to the Windows 8 platform. And once they have a couple of days experience with it, they love it. Seriously. I mean, the automatic washing machine seemed weird once, too, but you don’t see anyone going down to the river to beat their clothes on the rocks anymore, do you?
What are some technologies about which you or your clients initially felt skeptical? Would you be willing to give up your smart phone now? How about the integrated Bluetooth in your car? I’m just wondering. Let me know here or on Twitter @Eric_D_Townsend.
Eric Townsend is Director of MSP and SMB Marketing for Intel. You can contact Eric at activation@intelmsp.com.
