miku said:...I know that for many of us on the board here, we think of ourselves as "early adopters" -- but I don't think Nissan is really trying to encourage that interpretation -- they really want a well built consumer product out of the LEAF. We shouldn't hold Nissan to lower standards -- we should push them forward to help them achieve the right level of product quality...
I don't think we share the same interpretation of the term.
"Early adopter" IMO does not imply that we are willing to buy any piece of junk, and be happy with it, just because it's a neat gizmo.
An early adopter (or lighthouse customer) is a person who embraces new technology before most other people do. Early adopters tend to buy or try out new hardware items and programs, and new versions of existing programs, sooner than most of their peers. According to a theory called Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) formulated by Everett Rogers, early adopters make up 13.5 percent of the population.
Typically this will be a customer who, in addition to using the vendor's product or technology, will also provide considerable and candid feedback to help the vendor refine its future product releases, as well as the associated means of distribution, service, and support.
The relationship is synergistic, with the customer having early (and sometimes unique, or at least uniquely early) access to an advantageous new product or technology, but he also serves as a kind of guinea pig.
In exchange for being an early adopter, and thus being exposed to the problems, risks, and annoyances common to early-stage product testing and deployment, the lighthouse customer is sometimes given especially attentive vendor assistance and support, even to the point of having personnel at the customer's work site to assist with implementation. The customer is sometimes given preferential pricing, terms, and conditions, although new technology is very often expensive, so the early adopter still pays often quite a lot.
Early adopters and innovators have counterparts, known as laggards and Luddites, at the opposite end of the human spectrum. Laggards are slow or reluctant to embrace new technology because of disinterest or financial constraints. Luddites actively fear or loathe new technology, especially those forms they believe threaten existing jobs.
~compiled from various sources, including Wiki.