As a seasoned executive who has navigated the highs of multi-billion-dollar triumphs and the lows of epic disappointments, I've learned a fundamental reality: technical excellence alone does not secure market leadership. What's indispensable are comprehensive, multi-faceted execution strategies that pave the way for widespread adoption.
As I witness groundbreaking innovations like microLED and its potential impact on the $180 billion display market, I've drawn from my experiences to outline a framework that can guide companies in turning next-gen innovations into widespread successes. This framework encompasses four key components: overcoming technical hurdles, embracing disruptive change, fostering ecosystem preparedness, and driving consumer adoption.
Overcoming technical challenges
Achieving widespread adoption of new technologies and formats requires a holistic approach that aligns innovation with business objectives, resolves core usability issues and delivers a compelling user experience. We've seen this play out with technologies like 3D displays, virtual reality, and OLED.
3D displays struggled to deliver high-quality images, encountered user fatigue and needed more compelling content. Non-gaming VR also suffered from user fatigue and clunky headsets. In contrast, OLED displays overcame initial limitations through significant investments in research and development, cementing their position as the premium choice for flagship smartphones, high-end TVs, and other demanding applications.
Now, we're seeing microLED displays well-positioned to gain market traction. MicroLED will ultimately eclipse OLED as the leader in display technology due to its technical benefits and advancements in areas like new transfer technologies. Similarly, the rise of microLED can potentially help propel VR and AR into the mainstream by addressing many technical shortcomings.
Adapt or perish: Embrace disruptive innovation to avoid obsolescence
Industry-leading companies must proactively disrupt their own core technologies and business models to stay ahead of disruptive innovations and avoid obsolescence. We've seen this dynamic play out in industries like consumer electronics, cable, and banking.
As the dominant market leader in TV, Sony needed to transition from CRT to flat-panel displays swiftly, cable companies were initially hesitant to adopt streaming services, and banks demonstrated caution towards mobile payments and cryptocurrencies. These examples underscore the need for established players to embrace disruptive technologies. Fortunately, the cable companies and banks embraced these disruptive solutions to maintain their leadership positions. Those who fail to do so risk losing their leadership positions, as demonstrated by the demise of Nokia and Motorola in the shift to smartphone/4G and Sony’s loss of leadership in TV.
MicroLED displays represent a similar shift that could disrupt incumbent players holding on to today’s technologies like AMOLED and LCD. To remain resilient against disruption, companies need to proactively adopt next-generation technologies, whether for offensive or defensive reasons.
Cultivate ecosystem readiness
Successful integration of new technology and formats relies on cultivating ecosystem readiness. This involves strategically aligning stakeholders, fostering collaboration, and establishing alliances or industry associations to ensure smooth integration and interoperability across the entire value chain.
The failure of the Sony-led Super Audio CD (SACD), the perfect secure high-resolution audio format during Napster's emergence, and the Blu-ray format's success highlights the importance of ecosystem support. SACD's top-down approach failed to garner widespread hardware or music label support outside Sony. In contrast, the Blu-ray consortium’s (led by Sony) comprehensive ecosystem approach was instrumental in rallying support, winning the format war, and solidifying its position as the de facto optical disc Video standard.
Industry frontrunners in the microLED sector are strategically building a global ecosystem by partnering with key players across the value chain. This collaborative approach accelerates industry adoption by aligning resources, expertise, and technologies. By corralling the right stakeholders – from chip manufacturers, tooling makers, and display integrators – these ecosystems streamline innovation, reduce fragmentation, and minimize risk. This strategy is crucial for overcoming technical challenges, optimizing capital expenditures, and paving the way for the widespread commercialization of microLED displays.
Establish the groundwork for both consumer and market acceptance
Securing consumer and market acceptance is critical for successfully adopting new technologies. This requires superior technology, strategic marketing, and industry support.
The misstep of 3D displays, which lacked a compelling social use case and failed to resonate with consumers, contrasts sharply with the dominance of AMOLED smartphone displays. AMOLED's success is due to superior technology, heavy marketing by companies like Samsung, and eventual adoption by Apple, which skyrocketed marketplace acceptance.
MicroLED aims to achieve consumer and market acceptance through a phased approach, strategically targeting a few existing markets before moving into the hyper-high volume display sectors. By initially making strides in the automotive display and lighting applications, microLED can capitalize on its superior brightness, energy efficiency, and durability over OLED and LCD, building consumer and OEM confidence in its capabilities. This deliberate strategy ensures that microLED's reliability and performance are well-established before entering, for instance, the highly competitive 1.5B unit smartphone market, paving the way for broader consumer acceptance.
Navigating the path to technological triumph
Transforming cutting-edge innovations into mainstream successes requires a strategic approach that balances vision, execution, and adaptability. By conquering technical challenges, fostering ecosystem readiness, embracing disruptive innovation, and securing consumer acceptance, industry leaders can position emerging technologies to redefine markets and drive widespread adoption.
These foundational strategies set the stage for market supremacy for the new technology or format and provide a roadmap for future technological breakthroughs across diverse sectors. CEOs and industry leaders must prioritize these strategies to stay ahead of the curve and ensure their innovations not only reach the market – but win in the market. By learning from historical successes and failures and applying these lessons to emerging technologies like microLED, the next wave of technological breakthroughs will transform into ubiquitous solutions that define the future.
Tim Baxter is past president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America where he was responsible for more than 5,000 employees and $30 billion-plus in annual revenue. His career spans across 35 years in consumer electronics, telecom, mobile, appliances and entertainment. Prior to 13 years at at Samsung, he worked 10 years at Sony Electronics and 13 years at AT&T. He serves as a chairman of the board at VueReal, a microsolid printing technology company.