Clayton Christensen says that the most disruptive things start out as "toys." I was reminded of that yesterday as I was standing at the counter of a bike store in Calistoga filling out a list of bikes I was renting for our family and a few others. I had guessed the heights of everyone on my list and I wanted to take a copy of the list back to our house and make sure I had guessed correctly.
With my phone in hand, I looked up at the young man helping me and said "can you make a photocopy of this page so I can take it home with me?" He looked straight at my phone and said "that has a camera in it, right?"
I felt silly and chuckled. My friends who were with me laughed at me and the irony of the situation. I snapped a picture of the sheet of paper and then when I got home I went over everyone's heights to make sure we were getting correctly sized bikes. The phone worked perfectly for that situation. The young man was right. No need for an expensive photocopier in the bike store when all of his customers are carrying smart phones.
