Early Adopter

Yes, I am an early adopter. One of those folks that loves technology, and will spend a years worth of allowance, paper-boy money, (or whatever job at the time) to be first to use the product of the future! I'm pretty good at spotting trends and what is real.

Here's my track record:

CD Player - January 1985 (my birthday). Top 0.05% of CD player adopters. By the end of 1984 there were 340,000 players sold in the US. By the end of 1985, they had sold a total of 1 million. By 2000, there were over 150 million.

The CD Player was introduced to the US in March of 1983. the Sony CDP-101 (it cost about a grand. They sold very few). I bought a Technics SLP-3 for $599 (very expensive back in 1985!) in the beginning of 1985.

DVD Player - June 1998. I purchased Blade Runner - Directors Cut same day. Top 1.1%. By the end of 1998, there were 1.4 million DVD players sold. In December of 2007, there were nearly 132 million.

eBay - May 28, 1999. Top 1.4%. By the end of 1999, there were 3.8 million registered users. By the end of 2007, there were over 276 million registered users.

Netflix - October 10th, 2000. Top 1.6%. By the end of 2000, Netflix had 239,000 subscribers. In 2010 they have over 15 million.

Apple iPod - July 2004. Top 3.6%. By the end of 2004, Apple had sold a total of 10 million iPods. By September 2010, they are over 275 million.

I bought the first HP+iPod offering. 40Gig hard drive. It was actually the 4th generation iPod (I know, slacker!), but to be fair, this was the first iPod that had access to a Windows version of iTunes software and store. So, really, I'm giving myself a first gen pat on the back!

;-)

Apple iPhone - June 27, 2007. Top 0.45%. I bought the iPhone the first day it came out. June 27th. 2007. Apple sold 270,000 that day! By the end of September 2010, Apple had sold over 60 million iPhones.