Adoption of Communication Products and the Individual Critical Mass

Abstract

Communication products are characterized by the fact that the benefit that results from their use is mainly dependent on the number of users of the product, the so-called installed base, and only dependent to a minor degree on the actual product characteristics. The utility of a videoconferencing system, for example, is quite small at the product launch because only a few users are present with whom adopters can communicate. Only the increase in the number of users leads to an enhancement of the utility for each user.