Unleashing the Killer App: Amazon.co.uk: Larry Downes, Chunka Mui: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

You don't have to look far to see that technology is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, open The Economist, scan the Wall Street Journal--you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry. In Unleashing the Killer App, authors Larry Downes and Chunka Mui look at the dynamics of technological change and its potential to create "killer apps." The authors describe a killer app as a product or service that "wind up displacing unrelated older offerings, destroying and re-creating industries far from their immediate use, and throwing into disarray the complex relationships between business partners, competitors, customers, and regulators of markets." Examples of killer apps throughout history include the Welsh longbow, the pulley, the compass, moveable type, and the Apple Macintosh. And today, with our increasingly networked economy (for example, the World Wide Web), killer apps are appearing all around us.

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law, which states that the processing power of the CPU doubles every 18 months, and Metcalfe's Law, which observes that the value of a network increases dramatically with each node that's added to it. These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with each other and with their customers. To exploit these changes, the authors outline 12 points for designing a digital strategy to help you identify and create killer apps in your own organization. The book includes dozens of examples of how killer apps were discovered and implemented.

Unleashing the Killer App provides an excellent framework for rethinking the nature of business in today's wired economy. No matter the size of your company or what it does--health care, publishing, or fast food--there's probably a killer app lurking somewhere. This book will help you find it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Now in Paperback--A Business Week Bestseller! Over 100,000 hardcover copies sold!

When technologies, products, and services converge in radical, creative new ways, a killer app can emerge--a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition. Companies large and are swiftly attempting to remake themselves into organizations that nurture killer apps and successfully translate their digital strategy into market dominance.

With Unleashing the Killer App, Downes and Mui offer a progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born. Drawing from their experience and research with leading global businesses, the authors:

Identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps

Illustrate these principles with classic stories from history and examples from a wide range of industries that have successfully developed killer apps

Examine the economic consequences of the diminishing transaction costs in cyberspace

Describe how to integrate digital strategy into an organization's planning process to create new markets, form new customer relationships, and change the product line.

Unleashing the Killer App provides the tools, the techniques, and the proof that you need to incubate--perhaps even release--the killer app within your organization. Also available in hardcover; ISBN 087584801X, $24.95.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Not worth it 11 July 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This book is useless! Most of the examples are well known if you read the newspaper.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

How many buzzwords can you fit in a paragraph 6 July 1999

If you ever want to read a book that attempts to use every technology buzzword in existance, this is the one. This book has some interesting examples of companies that are gaining a competitive advantage using technology, but the author's try to be a little too "cute" with their knowledge of industry buzzwords. Give only a cursory reading of part 1 or just skip it and go right to part 2 and 3.

One thing that really annoyed me thoughout the book was the author's attempts to create then overuse something called Metcalf's Law and Moore's Law out of a couple of common sense observations. In each chapter, the authors constantly refered back to Metcalf's Law and Moore's Law as if these "laws" are on the same plateau as some created by Einstein. Both Metcalf and Moore are intellegent, excellent inventors, and astute businessmen, but I would never try to create some "law" out of a couple of common sense observations. After reading this book, I envision the authors having statues of Metcalf and Moore in their offices that they kneel in front of daily for inspiration.

My opinion, don't spend your own money on this book. Borrow it or get your company to pay for it.

"Dilbertesque" 21 May 1999

Man, what a load of crap. As a web developer, I was forced to read this book by a well-meaning Boss. Some of the content is so vague and filled with so much MBA double-speak, marketing-weasel garbage it is laugh-out-load funny. (The chart explaining the difference between a "Digital Strategy" and a traditional strategy is a hoot.) Only recommended for those who are still regularly using the phrase "think outside the box" in passing conversation.

This book's value depends where you're coming from

I think this was a great book, as far as it went. Any writing that promotes a shake-up of the status quo is fabulous in my thinking. Read more

Published on 22 Oct 2000

Compelling explanation of why killer applications happen

Best articulation so far of why the internet explosion has happened. The 10 principles are worth pondering - how could they be applied to your own pursuit of killer applications? Read more

Published on 13 Jan 2000 by tappin@fsbusiness.co.uk

The Prince for the Internet

The part of this book is how to create an "ideal" practice that will greatly advance customer benefits, displace competition permanently, and improve an organization's... Read more

Published on 8 Dec 1999

MACHIAVELLI FOR THE INTERNET TO REPLACE "STALLED" THINKING

The most positive aspect of this book is to provide an outline for how to create an "ideal" practice that will greatly advance customer benefits, displace competition... Read more

Published on 18 Nov 1999

I look forward to Downes and Mui's Next Killer App

Unleashing the killer app: digital strategies for market dominance is a remarkable summary of the drivers of this emergence we call the Internet and how it will continue to grow... Read more

Published on 16 Aug 1999

Essential reading for the digital age

This management book shows how one should tread the path to success in e-business. Althogh most examples are well known, presenting them in a concise form and commenting them... Read more

Published on 10 Aug 1999

A highly informative, well written book

This is a very good book. As an introduction to the economics of the information revolution, it is was a real eyeopener. Read more

Unleashing the Killer App [Paperback]

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