S-curve

From InnovationManagementWiki

S-curve – a pattern which is often seen both in the diffusion of an innovation and its technological development. In diffusion research, it is often argued that the initial adoption of an innovation is slow since few people know about it and often base their decisions on what others think. As more people adopt an innovation, the early and late majorities of the market become increasingly willing to adopt it, and thus the S-curve enters its steep face. Eventually, the market is almost saturated and the adoption rate levels off. Technological trajectories often follow a similar pattern. Initially, the rate of development is quite slow but once a couple of bottlenecks have been overcome, the pace of progress increases and later on, the technology reaches a level where it cannot be developed further.