A month ago we had the arrival of our third grandchild.  Of course he is gorgeous.  How do we know?  We have pictures of him.  His mother and father were the recipients of a new Flip Video camera for Christmas, a gift from Grandpa Norton.  This neat little device allows the less than competent (like me) to take instant digital videos and then move them at will to other people.

How do I know they are so easy to use? 

Recently I was a speaker at a conference in Mississippi.   At the end of my presentation, I pulled out my Flip Video and cornered a few of the attendees to get their feedback. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X40tbnNNl0s

So what is so special about this? 

I think each generation has a defining technology reach.  Now these can be seen in the technology item that was introduced and moved that general group ahead.

For the World Ward II generation it is the remote control (there are a few of us who were our parents “remote control”.  “Hey, Kordell, why don’t you change the channel for us?”  How barbaric is that?)

For Baby Boomers it is the transistor (remember when you looked inside of your television and there were things that glowed in there?)

For the Gen X it is the Flat Panel Display (in both the computer and the cell phone.  To this generation the keyboard became a thing of the past as touch screens, mouses, and cell phone pads created texting speed typists)

For Generation Y – those sub-25-year-olds – our very own YouTube generation it is technology that becomes transparent as they move pictures and video around the world without effort.

It is interesting that to each generation, the technology that is introduced DURING their lifetime always seems to be a little bit of a miracle.   To the generation that grows up with that technology it is passé, a given, almost a ho-hum.  

So if your customers are Baby Boomers, they see smart phones, the internet, Flip Videos, digital cameras something of a magic thing.  But to the YouTubers those things are a ho-hum. 

So if you are providing customer experiences that are a ho-hum, what happens when your competition is seen as cutting edge? 

Now how does that Flip Video thing work again?