For example, let's talk about 4K TV's. Now, they look great and, if I were in the market for a new TV I might consider one. But, it's tough to get consumers to think about spending a few thousand dollars on one of they already have a good, HD smart TV.
But the real key, is that without 4K content, it doesn't really help much to have a 4K TV. And that's the ripple effect. Consumers having 4K TV's mean that content has to be shot with 4K cameras. If you're shooting with a 4K camera to play on 4K TV's, you need to upgrade your sound quality. You also need to be thinking about that the set looks like, after all, what's the point of the detail you can get in 4K if there's not a lot of detail in what you're shooting. Maybe your talent needs to look better - those lines and wrinkles are really visible in 4K.
If you're an advertiser, you need to make sure that the quality of your commercials matches the quality of the content. If the shows are in 4K and your commercial comes up in standard HD, it just won't look as good. It may not be a visible difference, but people may just think there's something different about it.
That's the ripple effect. It's not just the 4K TV you need to think about, it may be the entire ecosystem. That's where the real impact comes in. And there were a lot of technologies on the floor where the ripple effect can have a serious impact. Like TV's, both the connected homes and connected cars will create a ripple effect that's potentially much greater than the individual technologies themselves. And while folks generally are prepared for the technology, they don't always think about the whole ecosystem in their planning.
So rather than asking about some specific piece of tech, think about the ripple effect. That's what you need to plan for.