Christensen writes: --- "Almost always, the leading companies in industries ------ are so absorbed with "sustaining" innovations - the up-market innovations that enable them to address more sophisticated and profitable customers in the more demanding tiers of the market - that they miss the "disruptive" innovations piercing into the market from the low end". -------

This process is very much in evidence for the T&M industry. Besides their million dollar ATE products, a good examples is their bench-top "Flagship", the GigaHz DSO. A small company today, wanting to design for the growing communication (Internet) market, can't afford the necessary $30,000, 20-GigaHz Tek sampling scope or the $60,000, 4-GHz realtime DSO. Only the "Elite", the billion dollar firms, can participate in these new and very lucrative markets. The exclusive focus of leading T&M firms on only the "high profit", elite customers prevents them from developing <disruptive products>.