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Moore's law (the prediction that the number of transistors that can be placed in a given area in an integrated circuit doubles every two years) is an interesting case when you study s-curves. It basically implies that  - 40 years after it was formulated - the s-curve still hasn't reached its inflection point. Now that Intel has announced the commercialization of chips based on 3d (i.e. nonplanar) transistors, some observers view this as a confirmation that Moore's law is still  going to be valid for the foreseeable future. On the other hand, others might wonder whether 3D chips represent a new paradigm and s-curve. In the end, you easily realize that s-curves are not a simple concept and that - in practice - you find many "nested" s-curves.

Almost every year we see that Intel is releasing New processor is it because 1. their older chips have reached market maturity or 2. they are innovative to keep increasing their market share or 3. is because The market is asking for more ? eventhough Intel is in top company, in making chips why are they always investing in designing new products ?

Talking about s-curves, we now have an s-curve that is not going up. The shfit from DVDs to online movies seemed to be a no-brainer because of evident advantages in the overall economics and convenience. However, the industry is getting tangled up in the issue of multiple and competing DRM standards and devices, and customers are sitting on the sidelines.

Smartphones are about to overcome traditional "feature phones" in the US. When inovation happens so fast, with new product generations emerging at intervals that are roughly twice the average replacement lifetime of a product, it becomes difficult to understand whether we are operating within a broad s-curve (mobile phones) or within a succession of s-curves. Could be an interesting topic for research.

Nokia's once established dominance in smartphones is a distant memory, due to iPhones and Android based devices. It is true that being an early mover is key to setting standards, but it is not enough if dominance doesn't remain when one moves along the s-curve from early adopters to the early majority.

Photovoltaic panels are apparently following a nice s-curve, with 100% year-on-year growth. But this has happened  mostly because of public  subsidies, which are about to be reduced, also because cash-strapped governments will not be able to bear the burden of generous feed-in tariffs in the future. The impact is likely to be critical for highly-levered operators, who will find it difficult to service their debt, and for PV makers, who are likely to discover that the industry has a serious problem with oversupply. Add the likelihood of some breakthrough innovation leading to a new generation of cheaper and/or more efficient cells, and you see a critical investment case.

e-books are an up-and-coming technology and there is a strong debate on the way they will affect the future of newspapers. The case is more complicated for magazines, that of course require color. An interesting case of the interplay between technology performance and user needs, leading (or not) to the enabling of a disruptive innovation.