Disruptive innovations, in the Clayton Christensen model, typically represent a "leap down" rather than an improvement in technology. And sometimes the result might seem to be a toy, beneath serious notice.
Here are some examples: the ASUS EEE ($349 from Amazon.com), the Everex Cloudbook ($399 from Wal-Mart later this month) and the XO from the One Laptop Per Child project, which you can't actually buy but theoretically costs somewhere between $150 and $300.
Toys, all of them. They don't even run Windows and can't run Vista. Their displays are only 800 pixels wide, not enough for most of today's sprawling website designs (particularly news sites). The XO and EEE don't even have hard drives.
But they come with their own set of advantages, starting with ultraportability. Take a look at Mindy McAdams' photos of the XO. Slip one into a backpack and you'll not even notice it's there. They all run Linux, which is virus-free and spyware-free, and highly reliable. They can put the Internet in new hands and new places.
So while the mainstream might consider these insufficient and underpowered, the EEE actually ranked as the "most wished for" computer on Amazon.com this Christmas season. And the best-selling? It was the Nokia N800, currently $231.49, an 800-pixel Linux-powered handheld "toy."
It's no wonder, then, that Microsoft and Intel, which are completely shut out of this phenomenon, are suddenly taking notice. There are reports of Intel trying to torpedo major government buys of XO laptops and Microsoft suddenly deciding Windows XP will live on, after all, as an installable "upgrade" for the XO.
But the disruptive potential of these ultraportable Linux laptops isn't limited to technology companies. Textbook publishing, entertainment broadcasting, record companies and government-controlled mass media all around the world are going to be upended. We've already seen in the United States the beginnings of what widespread Internet access can do to old media. You ain't seen nuthin' yet.